Tesco: Every Million Helps

Tesco: Every Million Helps

Tesco has reported increased profits of £2.29bn in the year to 29 February 2024, up from £882m last year, an increase of 159%.

Chief Executive Ken Murphy said that inflationary pressures had “lessened substantially” but noted that “things are still difficult for many customers”.

Tesco have apparently “worked hard” to reduce prices, increasing their Aldi Price Match offer and Clubcard Prices to include around 8,000 products each week.

Group sales excluding VAT and fuel surged 7.4% to £61bn, with UK like-for-likes up 7.7% “driven by a strong performance across all formats and channels”.

UK food sales jumped 9.3% with volume growth reported in the second half of the year, while home and clothing sales dipped 3.4%, which it attributed to “the impact of strategic ranging decisions” such as exiting low returning categories like large electricals.

Murphy said: “Customers are choosing to shop more at Tesco, which is reflected in growing market share as they respond to the improvements we’ve made to the value and quality of our products.”

Violence

In other supermarket news, violence against shopworkers is to be made a criminal offence in England & Wales, as the government attempts to clamp down on shoplifting.

Daily incidents of violence and abuse towards retail staff increased by 50% last year.

The offence will be introduced in the government’s Criminal Justice Bill, currently being considered by Parliament. According to Rishi Sunak, this will “send a message” to criminals stealing.

The government has apparently also pledged £55m in facial recognition technology over the next four years to “help catch perpetrators and prevent shoplifting”.

This includes £4m for bespoke mobile units that can be deployed to high streets across the country with live facial recognition used in crowded areas to identify people wanted by the police, including repeat shoplifters.

British Retail Consortium chief executive Helen Dickinson welcomed the announcement and said “the voices of the three million people working in retail have finally been heard”.

“This announcement sends a clear message that this abusive behaviour will not be tolerated. It will improve the police response, which has historically been poor, as police will now have the necessary data to understand the scale of the problem and allocate sufficient resource to address this issue.

“Government has taken action, and it is vital that the police use this new legislation to step up their response to incidents. Together, we must stamp out this scourge in crime that has been sweeping the nation and ensure retail workers are given the vital protections they deserve.”