Supermarket retailer Tesco registers strong growth in Q1
20 Jun '07
3 min read
We have made a solid start to the year in the UK, with total sales excluding petrol growing by 8.0%. On the same basis, like-for-like sales for the quarter increased by 4.7% - with inflation of 1.8%, driven by higher market prices for commodities and seasonal fresh foods.
Although food category performance has been strong, our rate of growth in non-food has eased in more subdued markets. Net new stores, excluding petrol, contributed 3.3%. Including petrol, like-for-like sales grew by 3.4% and total sales grew by 6.3%.
Operationally the business is performing according to plan with sufficient financing in place to achieve planned growth. Both cash flow and capital expenditure are in line with budget and we are on track to achieve our store opening targets.
In line with our Preliminary Announcement of 17th April 2007, our share buy-back programme continues to return value to shareholders.
A further £204m worth of shares have been repurchased since the February 2007 year end, bringing the total value repurchased through the current programme to £586m.
On 21st March 2007, Tesco announced the formation of a property joint venture with The British Land Company PLC and sold assets to the joint venture with a fair value of approximately £650m and a net book value of approximately £350m.
marketing@alchempro.com
