Tesco sales growth expected to be slower than rivals
Tesco is expected to report quarterly sales increased by up to 4.3% this week, up on last quarter but trailing the growth of its rivals.
Reports suggest the supermarket will report a like for like sales uplift of between 3.5 and 4.3% for the 13 weeks to May 31.
The expected rise beats the 2.7% increase in the final quarter of Tesco’s last financial year but lags behind the improvements recently reported by the market leader’s rivals.
Asda and Morrisons recently reported quarterly sales increased 8.4% and 8.2% respectively while frozen food retailer Iceland said last week that sales increased 16% last year.
The faster growth of Tesco’s rivals has been seen by some analysts as evidence that the retailer’s repositioning as “Britain’s biggest discounter”, a move aimed at heading off discounting rivals such as Aldi and Lidl, is denting sales.
Although increasing foot fall in stores, cheaper prices appear to have hit Tesco’s revenues.
Meanwhile, Sainsbury’s, which is attracting customers from more expensive rivals such as Waitrose through marketing initiatives such as “feed your family for a fiver” is expected to report a 6.4% increase in sales.
