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Why a Great British success story is saying ‘na shledanou’ to Czechia

Tesco’s slow withdrawal from Central Europe spells the end for a major British brand in Czechia.

Expats.cz Staff

Written by Expats.cz Staff Published on 13.11.2026 09:11:00 (updated on 13.11.2026) Reading time: 4 minutes

Business & Money
Tesco store in Prague, Shutterstock via ArDanMe
Tesco store in Prague, Shutterstock via ArDanMe

In 1919, a market stall sprang up in the East End of London. The Great War was over, and the owner of this stall, 21-year-old Jack Cohen, an East End local born of Jewish parents, was selling surplus military groceries which he’d bought with his “demob” payment for exiting the armed forces.

Cohen’s first day of sales yielded the grand sum of £1 in profit. It fired the starting gun for one of Britain’s most well-known companies, Tesco, which has just announced its pending withdrawal from Czechia.

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Great British origins

Fittingly, for such a well-known British brand, Tesco’s name originated with that most British of obsessions – tea.

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