General merchandise, including clothing and gifting, performs well for grocer.
The Christmas trading figures keep on coming, and today is the turn of Tesco, with the grocer revealing both group and UK like for like sales growth.
For the six weeks ending January 9, the retailer reported group like for like sales growth of 2.1% and UK like for like growth of 1.3%.
Chief executive Dave Lewis said that this was a significant improvement on recent results, with volumes increasing by 3.5% and transactions up 3.4%.
The strong Christmas performance was evident in all formats and categories, including positive like for like sales growth in the Tesco Extra format, where customers responded well to its seasonal general merchandise ranges.
In clothing, sales grew significantly ahead of the market, with strong ladies fashion and knitwear ranges supported by a Christmas gifting offer.
Tesco’s like for like sales performance in the Republic of Ireland and internationally also improved.
In addition, group like for like sales grew 0.4% for the 19 weeks to January 9 – Tesco’s first reported increase for over four years.
