Tesco said underlying sales growth slowed in its latest quarter, partly reflecting a tough comparative number in the same period last year.
The supermarket said that while overall grocery market growth was subdued, it outperformed in both sales and volume terms as it made further investments in range, price and loyalty as part of our ‘100 Years of Great Value’ celebrations for customers.
Fresh food volume outperformance was particularly strong in prepared foods and bakery and dairy.
Tesco delivered a strong Easter performance across all formats, including its biggest-ever sales day for small stores on Easter Sunday.
UK online grocery sales were up 7.0% year-on-year, with the proportion of customers choosing to Click & Collect their orders increasing to over 10%.
The closure of Tesco Direct in July last year impacted total UK sales growth by (0.8)%. ROI sales growth improved to 2.7% at constant rates, following our successful ‘You Won’t Pay More’ campaign in addition to targeted coupon activity.
Dave Lewis, Chief Executive said
“We have had a strong start to the year, growing ahead of the UK market on both a volume and value basis. Our customer offer is more competitive than ever, with a wider choice of our ‘Exclusively at Tesco’ products now available in more stores, helping to drive more than 10% sales growth across the range.
Following a particularly good Easter, our ‘100 Years of Great Value’ event in May proved very popular with more than 1.5 million customers benefiting from discounted Clubcard Prices.”
