14th Jun 2006 07:01
Tesco PLC14 June 2006 TESCO PLC FIRST QUARTER TRADING STATEMENT GROUP SALES GROW BY 10.4% GROUP SALES Group sales for the thirteen weeks ending 27 May 2006 increased by 10.4%,driven by all four parts of our strategy. Our international operations havedelivered a strong start to the year, the core UK business has shown continuedgrowth, more customers are choosing from our non-food ranges and our retailingservices have also performed well. STRONG INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE International sales were up 15.1% at constant exchange rates and by 15.3% atactual rates. We are on track to deliver our largest ever programme of new storeopenings this year, which will provide more than six million square feet of newselling space in International. A further one million square feet will be addedthrough the acquisition of the 11 Carrefour stores in the Czech Republic. SOLID GROWTH IN UK BUSINESS Total UK sales were up 9.0%, showing solid growth in competitive markets.Excluding petrol, like-for-like sales for the quarter increased by 4.5% withdeflation of 1.4%. Like-for-like sales including petrol grew by 5.5%. Net newstores contributed 3.5%. Chief Executive, Terry Leahy commented: "We've made a good start to the year across the group. International is showingstrong growth and pushing on well with new store development and the UK has madesolid progress on top of two years of exceptional performance." Contacts:- Investor Relations: Steve Webb 01992 644800Press: Jonathan Church 01992 646606 Angus Maitland 020 7379 5151 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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