Shares in Tesco fell this morning (8 December) after the retail giant reported another quarter of falling UK sales and revealed a “sharp” slowdown from its operations in Asia.
Tesco’s underlying sales in the UK fell for the fourth quarter in a row, with like-for-like sales excluding fuel and VAT down 0.9% in the retailer’s third quarter, which ran until 26 November.
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Total UK sales, excluding fuel, were up 3.7% and, pointing to Kantar Worldpanel data, Tesco said its volumes were “materially” ahead of its competitors thanks to its Big Price Drop campaign.
Like-for-like sales in Asia were up 0.8% but Tesco said that growth had “slowed sharply” during the quarter due to the floods in Thailand in November and warm temperatures hitting sales in South Korea and China.
In Europe, Tesco saw its like-for-like sales increase by 0.9%. The retailer pointed to “strong performances” in Poland and Slovakia. It said it was growing “ahead of the market” in Ireland but admitted its like-for-like sales were down.
In the US, Tesco’s Fresh & Easy chain reported an 11.9% increase in like-for-like sales.
Shares in Tesco reached 394.25p at 10:11 GMT, down 0.67%. The stock had fallen by 1.58% earlier in the day.
