Tesco Sales Rise

Decision Points

Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandising retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues (after Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Metro) and the second-largest measured by profits (after Wal-Mart). It has stores in 14 countries across Asia, Europe and North America and is the grocery market leader in the UK (where it has a market share of around 30%), Malaysia and Thailand.

The chain was founded by Jack Cohen in 1919. The brand first appeared after Cohen bought a shipment of tea from T.E. Stockwell and he used those initials and added the first two letters of his own surname. The first Tesco store was opened in 1929 in Burnt Oak, Edgware, Middlesex. Originally a UK-focused retailer specialising in food and drink, it has diversified both geographically and by product, into areas such as clothing, electronics, financial services, telecoms, home, health, car and dental insurance, retailing and renting DVDs, CDs, music downloads, Internet services and software.

It is listed in the London Stock Exchangeon December 23,1947  and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

Tesco’s sales have risen both in UK and overseas, Tesco has reported a rise in third-quarter sales, saying it is "continuing to see evidence of a steady consumer recovery" in the UK.

Its like-for-like UK sales excluding petrol - which pulls out the impact of new store openings - rose 1.5% in the three months to 27 November.

Tesco's overseas sales growth was stronger, increasing by 4.1% on the same measurement.

The supermarket giant said it was being helped by an improving global economy.

Tesco saw its biggest percentage sales growth in the US, where they rose by 9.8% on a like-for-like basis.

It said this was helped by a "particularly successful" Thanksgiving holiday period, and higher customer numbers.

Like-for-like sales in mainland Europe advanced by 3.6%, while those in Asia added 4.3%.

Tesco's group-wide total sales - which includes stores that have opened during the past year - increased by 8.8%.

Chief executive Terry Leahy said: "Our continued investment in the shopping trip, and our new space opening programme across our markets, are giving us good sales momentum and market share gains."