Names that made the High Street (4)

Yet another Jewish immigrant, Jack Cohen, started as an apprentice tailor to his father but joined up in 1917 to be a canvas maker in the Royal Flying Corps. After the war he became a market stall holder in Hackney.

The number of stalls increased and then he went into wholesale. He worked 7 days a week, starting at dawn and counting money till late.

He moved off the streets into shops with open fronts to continue looking like stalls. And just before then the brand name was born. He began sourcing tea from a supplier named T.E.Stockwell. He took the initials TES, added the first two letters of his own surname, and invented TESCO.

Not everyone's favourite brand perhaps - but it does have the right formula. It is the third largest retailer in the world, with stores in 14 countries. More than 2,500 stores in the UK -and more than 5,000 world wide! And this year's revenue? £57.5 bn.