Tesco shares up on “strong” Christmas sales

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Sales at Tesco grew over the Christmas period, thanks to various Christmas offers.

Tesco reported a 2.6% increase in like-for-like sales in the group’s UK supermarkets.

Dave Lewis, the chief executive, said:

“As a team, we have achieved a lot in the last 19 weeks. In the UK we delivered significant improvements in our competitive offer and this is reflected in a very strong Christmas performance which was ahead of the market.”

“In Central Europe, the reshaping of our business continues and we are confident of the outcome we envisaged. In Asia, negotiations with suppliers are concluding satisfactorily and we can see this in our simpler, clearer, more impactful offer for customers.”

“We have more to do everywhere but remain bang on track to deliver our plans for the year and as we enter our centenary we are in a strong position,” he added, in a statement.

Sales over the Christmas period were boosted thanks to offers on vegetables, lamb and beef joints and wine.

Ed Monk from Fidelity Personal Investing said: “Lamb and beef joints proved a big hit with shoppers, as did Tesco’s ‘Festive 5’ vegetable offer.”

“With the potential merger of rivals Sainsbury’s and Asda threatening to dethrone it as the nation’s biggest grocer, and German discounters snapping at its heels too, that’s good news and further endorsement of the turnaround being enacted by boss Dave Lewis.”

In other news, Marks & Spencer revealed a dip in sales over the Christmas period. Like-for-like sales fell by 2.2%. UK clothing sales declined by 4.8%, food sales were down by 1.2%.

Shares in the group (LON: TSCO) are trading up 2.31% (0924GMT).

 

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Safiya focuses on business and political stories for UK Investor Magazine. Her interests include international development, travel and politics.