04/12/2013

Tesco UK Sales Fall In Third Quarter

Supermarket giant Tesco has recorded a fall in its underlying third quarter sales in the UK.

The group said the decline is due to a challenging market for groceries.

In its latest trading update, the supermarket said its like-for-like UK sales, which ignore new shop openings, and excluding VAT and petrol, had declined by 1.5%.

In October, the grocery chain reported a 23.5% drop in profits in the first half of its financial year.

Commenting on the figures, Chief Executive Philip Clark said: "Continuing pressures on UK household finances have made the grocery market more challenging for everyone since the summer and our third quarter performance reflects this.

"The actions we have taken to position the business for the future – including the work currently underway to transform our general merchandise offer and our decision to significantly reduce the amount of new space we open – are also holding back our sales performance in the short-term.

"Customers are continuing to respond positively to the changes we are making to the UK business to differentiate our offer and position Tesco as a multichannel leader. These include the re-launch of finest, over 100 more store refreshes in the quarter and further investment into our fast-growing online grocery service."

Outside of the UK, Tesco saw its sales decline by 5.1% in Asia, which is said to be driven by a worsening performance in Thailand and South Korea. In Europe, like-for-like sales were down 4%, with sales in Ireland particularly being hit by "extremely challenging conditions for consumers".

(JP/CD)

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