Tesco reports bumper Christmas sales
Tesco has posted bumper Christmas sales with group retail like-for-likes climbing by 7.9%.
The supermarket attributed the strong performance to a focus on value and quality, and a particular strength in fresh food. It was also pleased with the performance of its Aldi Price Match scheme which included over 600 key products.
While like-for-like sales in the UK and Ireland rose by 7.8% in the six weeks to 7 January, sales in Central Europe increased by 8.7%.
Ken Murphy, Tesco chief executive, said: “I’m really pleased with our performance over this period – particularly the further strong growth at Christmas on top of the exceptional growth of the last few years. We’ve delivered a strong market share performance in the UK and ROI, Booker has continued to grow strongly despite a particularly tough catering backdrop and our Central European business has delivered its highest sales growth for many years.”
The Christmas results meant that sales grew by just over 6% to £19.7 billion in the UK and Ireland in the 19 weeks to 7 January.
Looking ahead, Murphy said: “We go into the new calendar year with good momentum and I am confident we can continue to maintain our competitiveness and deliver a strong performance relative to the market despite the challenging conditions ahead.”
