Tesco delivers again

Tesco has announced today that underlying annual profits increased 13.2% to £2.55bn in their last financial year. UK sales increased 9% to £35.6bn compared to £32.7bn last yeae, with like for like growth of 5.6%, and 3.4% from new stores.

Excluding petrol, like for like sales grew by 5.6%. Across the rest of Europe, sales increased by 18.7% to £6.3bn and in Asia, sales grew by 16.8% to £4.7bn.

Tesco also said that it is pleased with the early performance of Tesco Direct and its plans to open stores in the US later this year are on track.

Tesco Chief Executive Terry Leahy said "Tesco is investing for the future and delivering today. These results demonstrate that we have again made good progress across the Group, whilst making significant start-up investment in new businesses and coping well with challenging conditions in some markets.