Tesco supermarket group has released its first quarter (Q1) 2013 financial results – showing a relatively poor performance.
Like-for-like sales excluding value added tax and petrol in this year’s Q1 were down by one per cent – broadly similar to the end of the last year.
Sales including petrol and the tax grew by 0.1 per cent, a sluggish performance in the UK – despite promises from the company’s chief executive in the past, who believed making shops more pleasant would increase profits at the large supermarket chain.
However, performance in all food categories was stronger than Q1 2012 – if frozen foods and chilled convenience meals are excluded.
The supermarket group blamed the horse meat scandal for poorer sales. Four frozen beef products at the chain were found to contain DNA from the animal – sparking a Europe-wide food safety scandal.
Philip Clarke, chief executive of Tesco, said: “We have set out our plans to put customers back at the heart of the way we do business, and this is particularly evident in our recent initiatives on price and on food trust.”
