Clothing drives non-food sales for Tesco’s Q1

British supermarket giant Tesco has reported its financials for the 13 weeks ended May 25, 2024, in which it saw its like-for-like sales rise 3.6 percent across the UK and ROI to 14.3 million pounds.

While food sales continued to be the core driver for its overarching performance, with a quarterly growth of 5 percent, in the non-food category, clothing sales were the defining contribution.

As a whole, non-food sales were up 0.7 percent, with a “strong growth in clothing” being emphasised by Tesco.

In a release, chief executive, Ken Murphy, said that the strong volume growth across all of Tesco’s markets, including the UK, ROI and Central Europe, had been supported by “easing inflation”.

Murphy also noted that the company’s strong market share, which was up +52bps to 27.6 percent, had grown more than any other competitor in the past two years, with “customers switching to [Tesco] from other retailers” and shopping more often with more in their baskets.

He continued: “Following another strong quarter, we're pleased to reiterate our guidance for the full year, with sales trends in line with our expectations and the business well-positioned for the months ahead.”

For the 2024/25 financial year, Tesco said it is expecting retail adjusted operating profit of at least 2.8 billion pounds, while retail free cash flow is anticipated to be in the guidance range of 1.4 to 1.8 billion pounds.