How the supermarkets began the card game

Terry Leahy

Terry Leahy

Tesco has grown rapidly from its first small 1960’s supermarkets to be the UK’s leading retailer.

Tesco has grown rapidly from its first small 1960’s supermarkets to be the UK’s leading retailer.

Tesco, now the third largest retailer in the world, has built the concept of customer loyalty into the core of its business. Terry Leahy, who has just stood down as chief executive, is credited with seeing the opportunity of a loyalty card system in the early 1990’s and pushing for its adoption. He recalls spotting another smaller company using the system , and preparing a report for the Tesco board on how it could help the supermarket chain.

In some trepidation, he waited for a response...