UK retailer Tesco has seen like-for-like sales in its home UK market rise by 1.8% in the third quarter of the year, the 13 weeks to November 26, and by 0.7% over the six weeks to 7 January.
The retailer’s like-for-like group sales were up 1.5% in the quarter (+0.3% over Christmas), while internationally, Tesco posted like-for-like sales growth of 0.6% (-1.2% over Christmas).
Commenting on the performance, Dave Lewis, Tesco chief executive, said that he was “very encouraged by the sustained strong progress that we are making across the Group. In the UK, we saw our eighth consecutive quarter of volume growth and delivered a third successful Christmas.
“Our fresh food ranges proved particularly popular, outperforming the market with great quality, innovative new products and even more affordable prices. Internationally, we have continued to focus on improving our offer for customers in challenging market conditions.”
Tesco noted that food like-for-like sales were up 1.3% over Christmas, however there was an impact on UK like-for-likes, given the retailer chose not to repeat its Clubcard Boost programme in December 2016.
Tesco also sad that it has ‘worked hard throughout the period – in collaboration with our supplier partners – to minimise the impact on our customers of the inflationary pressures that have started to emerge in the market’, noting that the price of a typical basket in the UK is ‘nearly 7% cheaper’ than in September 2014.
In Europe, a ‘sustained strong performance in the third quarter in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia helped to offset the impact of intense competitive activity in Poland’, it added.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
