Tesco sales up over Q3 and Christmas, growth in clothing

Supermarket giant Tesco welcomed positive performance over Q3 and Christmas, covering the 19 weeks to 4 January 2025, reporting an increase in like-for-like sales during both periods.

In the UK and Republic of Ireland, sales rose 3.1 percent, while for Central Europe, they were up 3.5 percent. Overarching retail sales increased 3.1 percent, contributing to what CEO, Ken Murphy, said was the company’s “biggest ever Christmas”.

In the UK specifically, the retailer continued to welcome volume growth ahead of the market, with value market share up to 28.5 percent. As food sales rose 4.7 percent, non-food sales also increased 4 percent, with growth seen in both home and clothing.

In Central Europe, customer satisfaction was said to have improved ahead of the market in all operating countries. While food sales rose 3.7 percent, non-food was up 1.8 percent, driven by general merchandise.

Looking ahead, Tesco said ongoing investments into customer offers continue to drive volume momentum and set the company up to deliver long-term growth.

With this, it is expecting a retail adjusted operating profit for the 2024/25 financial year of around 2.9 billion pounds, falling in line with the upgraded guidance initially posted in its interim results.