“In tough market conditions, we have stayed true to our commitment to helping customers – working closely with our supplier partners to keep prices low,” said CEO Dave Lewis.
Food sales have grown by 2.7% on the previous year, alongside ten million more customer transactions than in 2016, a rise of 1.3%. Fresh food volumes also grew by 1.6% in the quarter, due to improvements in the offering to consumers. Online grocery has been another point of improvement for the supermarket with strong sales growth of 4.8%, with a recently introduced ‘monthly delivery saver subscription’ offering.
Price position relative to competitors has improved for Tesco as efforts to offset inflation have been widely recognised with further improvement of the ‘Trust in Price’ spotlight measure.
Consumer trust in the Tesco brand has shown to be on the rise, contributed to by new schemes run by Tesco such as the ‘Helpful little swaps’ strategy where customers were able to purchase a basket of products which contained 27% less salt, 38% less sugar and 65% less saturated fat but which was also 17% cheaper than a standard basket. Through this scheme Tesco have also given away more than 20 million pieces of fruit to children since July last year; earning the supermarket kudos with its customers.
International like-for-like sales were down 3.0% in the quarter, predominantly due to a 2.7% impact from a discontinuation of unprofitable bulk selling of products, predominantly tobacco and alcohol in Thailand. This reflects a decision to simplify the business around a core retail offer, ensuring the focus remains on sustainable, profitable sales growth.
The NFU work closely with Tesco on behalf of UK farmers to promote British agriculture. Click here to view our engagement with Tesco and the rest of the supply chain.