Tesco weathers the summer storms
SUPERMARKET giant Tesco today overcame a rain-hit summer to post half-year profits of £1.32bn.
The better-than-expected performance - 14% ahead of last year - came despite the “challenges” of the poor summer weather, chief executive Sir Terry Leahy said.
But the weather took its toll on UK like-for-like sales, which grew by just 3.5% excluding petrol in the six months to August 25.
Tesco’s UK business, which has 1,500 stores, had performed ahead of expectations early in the period, but slowed as downpours in June and July dampened sales.
The 3.5% like-for-like sales increase compares with the 5.5% sales growth, excluding petrol, seen last year representing one of its weakest performances for several years as the whole sector comes under pressure.
Sir Terry said the retailer enjoyed “strong sales momentum” during August as customers responded to price cutting and lifted sales growth to about 5% during the month.
Tesco’s overall UK sales reached £18.3bn, a 5.4% increase on the same period last year.
Across the group non-food sales grew 12% to £5.5bn, accounting for about a quarter of Tesco’s overall £22.6bn group revenues.
Tesco’s non-food sales were also helped by the launch of the latest Tesco Direct catalogue last month, which now includes about 7,500 items.
