Leading UK supermarket group Tesco has reported a 10% rise in sales for the 13 weeks to 26 May, on the back of growth across all four parts of its business.

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The retailer said that its expanding international operations had delivered a “strong start” to the year, while the core UK business had shown solid growth. In addition, the company reported that its non-food ranges – helped by the launch of Tesco Direct – had performed well in more challenging markets and its retailing services division had continued to attract new customers.


“We’ve made a good start to the year across the group,” said CEO Terry Leahy. “International is delivering particularly strong growth, pushing on well with both new store development and the integration of the stores we acquired last year, and our plans to open in the United States later this year are well on track. The UK has made solid progress in the first quarter with good growth in our core food categories and further investment in improving our offer for customers – including last week’s announcement of GBP270m (US$536.36m) of price cuts.”


International sales rose by 24.6% for the quarter at constant exchange rates, with a particularly strong performance registered in Asia, where sales grew by 32% at constant rates. Tesco said business in Asia had benefited for the first time from the consolidation of its operations in China.


Meanwhile, in the UK market, total sales excluding petrol grew by 8.0% in the first quarter, while like-for-like sales, also excluding petrol, increased by 4.7%.

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