Clothing sales grow well at Tesco

18 Apr '07

3 min read

UK sales increased by 9.0% to £35.6bn (last year £32.7bn), with like-for-like growth of 5.6% (including volume of 5.0%) and 3.4% from net new stores. Excluding petrol, like for like sales grew by 5.6%. In our stores, we saw modest inflation of 0.2%, as our continued investment in lowering prices for customers was more than offset by the strength of seasonal fresh food prices.

Despite challenging economic conditions and political uncertainty in some of our markets, our international businesses delivered another good performance. Sales growth has been strong – with like-for-like growth in all but one of our markets (Hungary being the exception) and profits have again moved ahead well. Margins continue to improve, despite absorbing significant integration costs from the in-market acquisitions we have completed in the year – in the Czech Republic, Poland and Malaysia.

Our rate of expansion in European markets stepped up significantly in the year with 4.7m square feet of new space added – representing almost 30% growth. Successful regional initiatives to strengthen our business – from pan-European purchasing of own brand products and fresh produce to the introduction of the Cherokee clothing range - have contributed to further improvements in our competitiveness.

Our newer categories saw strong growth. Clothing sales again grew well – up by 16% - in a subdued market, partly affected by unseasonal weather and we made strong market share gains by volume and value.

TESCO PLC

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