Tesco has racked up its 12th consecutive quarter of growth as Britain’s biggest grocer said it “outperformed” the market in the crucial Christmas period.
The supermarket giant said like for likes grew 2.2% in its core UK and Ireland business during the six weeks to January 5. Including the Booker business, like for likes were up 2.6%.
Tesco hailed “outperformance in all key categories” including food, clothing and general merchandise.
Across the wider 13-week quarter to November 24, like for likes in its UK and Ireland supermarkets advanced 0.7%.
Ecommerce sales registered a 2.6% uptick in like-for-like terms over Christmas, as Tesco enjoyed its “biggest ever sales week” in online grocery. It took almost 776,000 orders and delivered more than 50 million items.
Like for likes in Central Europe and Asia fell by 2.4% and 2.8% respectively during the shorter Christmas trading period.
Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis 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.”
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