Tesco’s Chief Executive, Dave Lewis has said that the 0.2% decline in Q3 and 0.4% in Q4 in terms of like-for-like sales was due to the groups decision to stop accepting competitor coupons.
Commenting on the Supermarkets full year preliminary results 2018/19, Lewis said: “There was a very high level of couponing in the Irish market, we stopped taking them.”
"We definitely felt that in some of the headline numbers, but we felt that it was the right thing to do."
“In Q4, we started doing some targeted activation ourselves. But the big decision was not to take competitor
coupons in Q3.”
However, overall, Lewis said that he was very happy with the Irish performance, as like-for-like sales grew by 1.3% last year across the group’s stores in Ireland.
Other Highlights
In the UK and the Republic of Ireland, Tesco's like-for-like sales grew by 2.9%.
The groups revenue increased by 11% to £63.9 billion for the period.
Other highlights included a 16.7% operating profit increase to £2.15 million.The British retailer also reported a 28.8% rise in full-year pre-tax profits to £1.67 million.
Looking Ahead
Tesco said in the statement that it is confident that it will meet the remaining goals in its turnaround plan in 2019/20.
“After four years we have met or are about to meet the vast majority of our turnaround goals,” Lewis outlined.
Lewis outlined that the group has restored its 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,” he added.
Grocery Market Share
According to the latest grocery market share figures published on Monday (8 April) by Kantar, Tesco recorded relatively flat performance compared with the rest of the market.
Growth of 0.6% at Tesco was underlined by a strong performance in fresh produce, with fruit and vegetables up by 5.5% and 4.4% respectively.
© 2019 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Donna Ahern. Click sign-up to subscribe to Checkout.