Pre-tax profits at Tesco have climbed 28% year on year as the supermarket chain said it was on track to meet the “vast majority” of its turnaround goals.
Full-year pre-tax profits were £1.7bn for the 52 weeks to 23 February 2019, on total sales of £63.9bn. Like-for-like sales rose 2.9%, with Tesco up 1.7% and Booker up 11.1%. Booker’s sales surged 14.7% in the first half of 2018-19, and maintained a 7.6% increase in the second half.
Chief executive Dave Lewis, who oversaw the takeover of Booker in 2017, said: “After four years we have met or are about to meet the vast majority of our turnaround goals.
“I’m very confident that we will complete the journey in 2019/20.
“I’m delighted with the broad-based improvement across the business.
“We have restored our competitiveness for customers - including through the introduction of ‘Exclusively at Tesco’ - and rebuilt a sustainable base of profitability.
“The full year margin of 3.45% represents clear progress and the second half level of 3.79%, even before the benefit of Booker, puts us comfortably in the aspirational range we set four years ago.”
The past year has seen Tesco relaunch it’s 10,000-strong own brand range, and introduce Booker ‘bulk buys’ in 70 Tesco stores.
A wider roll-out of the initiative is set to continue next year as the company continued to “unlock” the benefits of “joining forces,” Lewis added.
Tesco also launched its new discount format Jacks in late 2018, and has just opened it’s ninth store.
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