16th Jan 2007 07:01
Tesco PLC16 January 2007 Tuesday 16 January 2007 CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR TRADING STATEMENT SUCCESSFUL CHRISTMAS FOR TESCO Tesco has delivered strong growth and record sales over the Christmas and NewYear period, driven by all four parts of our strategy. Group sales, excluding petrol, increased by 9.9% in the six weeks to 6 January2007. Including petrol, Group sales increased by 9.5%. Strong UK Performance Like-for-like sales excluding petrol increased by 5.9% in the period, slightlyhigher than the rate of growth reported in our third quarter. Including petrol,UK sales grew by 8.3%, including like-for-like growth of 5.4% and 2.9% from netnew space. Our overall inflation in the UK was 0.1%, driven by a small amount ofinflation in store. The entire Tesco team worked hard to deliver an even better Christmas forcustomers than last year, including a record year in many non-food categories,including toys & games, electronics and clothing. Many customers chose from our Tesco Finest and Organic ranges over the period.Sales of fresh Organic foods were up by 39% and Finest meat and poultry salesgrew by over 55%. Our Extra and Express stores saw strong growth, helping tomake shopping for food, non-food and last-minute essentials as convenient aspossible for our customers at such a busy time of the year. Tesco.com, including Tesco Direct, had a successful Christmas, with total salesup by more than 30% to over £150 million with nearly two million ordersdelivered in the six weeks. Over 14 million items were delivered by the groceryteam in their busiest Christmas week ever. Good Progress Overseas Overall, our overseas businesses traded well over the Christmas and New Yearperiod, with International sales growing by 15.8%. For further information: Investor Relations Steve Webb +44 1992 644800 Press Jonathan Church +44 1992 644645 Angus Maitland +44 20 7379 5151 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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