Tesco sales levels not as high as rivals over Christmas

A recently released report has suggested that the sales growth for one of the UK’s leading supermarket giants, Tesco, was not as high as that of its rival supermarkets, with the chain experiencing its lowest sales level growth in almost twenty years. In the run up to Christmas sales growth at Tesco came in at just 2.5 percent, which was much lower than the sales growth experienced by its rivals.

An official from Tesco said that the sales growth figure was probably the lowest seen since the last recession in the 1990s, but he added that this would not stop Tesco from investing in the creation of more stores and creating thousands of new jobs over the course of the year. He also went on to state: ‘In a price sense we are very competitive in the market now… now we are happy with our position.’

The sales growth seen by Tesco was just over half of that reported by one of its main rival supermarkets, Sainsbury’s, which reported sales growth of 4.5 percent. This was despite the fact that Tesco introduced a range of low cost alternatives to brand name groceries in order to stave off competition from discount retailers such as Netto and Aldi.

Separate reports have shown that over the month of December sales levels in all areas suffered, and one official from the British Retail Consortium stated: ‘These are truly dreadful numbers. Overall the food sector was almost the only one to show growth. Non-food retailers had a torrid December despite a blizzard of promotions and deals, which would have hit margins. Many hard-pressed customers couldn’t be seduced into spending.’