Tesco (LON:TSCO) posted a 34% increase in its full-year operating profit to £2.21 billion on Wednesday, beating expectations.
“After four years we have met or are about to meet the vast majority of our turnaround goals. I’m very confident that we will complete the journey in 2019/20,” Dave Lewis, Chief Executive of Tesco, commented on the results.
Group sales were up 11.5% to £56.9 billion, whilst revenue increased 11.2% to £63.9 billion.
The UK’s largest supermarket noted the launch of Jack’s in its results in addition to eight new ‘Exclusively at Tesco’ brands.
Jack’s is Tesco’s new brand and store format created as a celebration of 100 years of great value at Tesco. The discount store chain aims to compete with Aldi and Lidl on low-cost goods.
“I’m delighted with the broad-based improvement across the business. We have restored our competitiveness for customers – including through the introduction of ‘Exclusively at Tesco’ – and rebuilt a sustainable base of profitability. The full year margin of 3.45% represents clear progress and the second half level of 3.79%, even before the benefit of Booker, puts us comfortably in the aspirational range we set four years ago,” Chief Executive Dave Lewis continued.
The supermarket, which has a market share of 27.4% according to recent Kantar data, now has 149,000 more customers enjoying its goods.
Tesco remains confident in its ability to meet the remaining goals in its turnaround plan in 2019/20, in addition to delivering a level of profitability within the 3.5%-4.0% margin range.
It cited market uncertainty in its results, but confirmed that its performance to date remains strong in spite of the unpredictability.
Tesco expects to keep focusing on customer satisfaction, cash profitability, free cash flow and earnings growth.
Elsewhere in the market, Asda recently overtook Sainsbury’s (LON:SBRY) in main store sales. Aldi saw its market share boosted to 8% and Lidl was the second fastest growing supermarket with its market share growing to 5.6%.
At 08:42 BST, shares in Tesco plc (LON:TSCO) were trading at +1.50%.