Tesco, UK

 Over the last five years, Tesco has demonstrated a strong and resilient business performance, navigating a period of significant economic challenges—from the post-pandemic landscape to severe cost-of-living inflation—to deliver consistent sales growth, recover profitability, and return substantial cash to shareholders . The company's strategy has focused on reinvesting in its core customer offer through value initiatives like Aldi Price Match and Clubcard, which has resulted in growing market share and improved customer satisfaction .

Here is a summary of Tesco's financial performance over the last five fiscal years.

📈 Strong Sales Growth and Market Share Gains

Tesco has consistently grown its top-line sales over the five-year period, from £57.89 billion in 2021 to £69.92 billion in 2025 . This growth has been driven by a successful strategy focused on value and loyalty:

• Winning Customer Offer: The combination of "Aldi Price Match," "Low Everyday Prices," and exclusive "Clubcard Prices" has made Tesco highly competitive, helping customers manage the cost-of-living crisis .

• Record Market Share: This strategy has paid off significantly. By early 2025, Tesco's UK market share reached 28.3%, its highest level since 2016, with 21 consecutive periods of growth . This momentum continued into the first half of the 2025/26 financial year, with share up a further 77bps to 28.4% .

• Volume and Premium Growth: The focus on value has driven volume growth, while innovation in premium ranges like 'Finest' has also been a key contributor, with Finest sales growing by 15% in FY24/25 .

💰 Profitability and Shareholder Returns

After a dip in the 2022/23 fiscal year due to high inflation and impairment charges, profitability has rebounded strongly:

• Profit Recovery: Adjusted operating profit fell to £2.63bn in 2022/23 as the company absorbed significant cost inflation to protect customers . However, it rebounded by 11% in 2023/24 to £2.83bn and grew by a further 10.6% in 2024/25 to reach £3.13bn .

• Cash Returns to Shareholders: Reflecting confidence in its strong cash flow and balance sheet, Tesco has undertaken an aggressive share buyback programme. Since October 2021, it has bought back £3.7 billion worth of shares as of October 2025 . The dividend per share has also been on the rise, increasing by 13.2% for FY24/25 to 13.70p .

🚀 Strategic Investments and Future Outlook

Tesco is not resting on its laurels and is investing in long-term growth platforms:

• Digital and Convenience: The company is expanding its online capabilities, with its 'Whoosh' rapid delivery service now covering over 70% of UK households . It also launched "Tesco Marketplace" to offer third-party general merchandise online .

• Personalisation and Media: With Clubcard penetration now over 80% in its markets and 18 million app users, Tesco is building a powerful digital media and insight platform to offer personalised deals and a new revenue stream .

• Cautious Optimism: For the 2025/26 financial year, Tesco initially guided for lower profits to allow for further investment in a highly competitive market . However, due to a strong customer response to its investments, it upgraded its profit guidance in October 2025 to between £2.9bn and £3.1bn .

In summary, Tesco has successfully fortified its position as the UK's market leader by doubling down on value and loyalty during a period of economic strain. This has translated into consistent sales growth, a powerful recovery in profits, and significant cash returns for its shareholders.

The return of ‘Tescopoly’? How Britain’s biggest retailer dominates everyday life

Reach into your pocket and you will probably find evidence of Tesco. Whether it is a Clubcard, mobile phone or just a receipt from one of its 3,000 stores, the UK’s biggest retailer is engrained in everyday British life.

As its chief executive, Ken Murphy, proudly proclaimed this month, the supermarket chain has grabbed even more of our spending this year, landing almost a third of all grocery sales and receiving more than £1 in every £10 spent in UK retail. Data released this week showed Tesco’s sales growth outgunning its traditional rivals.

The retailer’s resurgence represents a remarkable turnaround for a business whose relentless growth across Britain through the 1990s and early 2000s was abruptly curtailed as management became too focused on overseas expansion and profits over service.

A devastating accounting scandal in 2014 appeared to close the chapter on a corporate success story that had regulators and politicians concerned about its all-encompassing dominance. Now, Tesco seemingly has its mojo back and is quietly reasserting its stranglehold on the UK market – this time in a far less visible manner.

‘Every little helps’

The term “Tescopoly” was first coined in the noughties, when concerns about the retailer – and it supermarket peers – putting local high street shops out of business were at their height.

Regulators allowed Tesco, then led by Sir Terry Leahy, to buy up the 860-store convenience chain T&S Stores in 2002, and it later marched into selling electrical goods, homewares and clothing in its out of town Homeplus stores from 2005. Tesco had already set up a banking venture with Royal Bank of Scotland in 1997 and its mobile phone service with O2 in 2003.

Huge superstores were built on the edge of towns around the country and there were concerns about it hoarding land to block rivals from setting up shop nearby and using its dominant scale to bully suppliers.

“Nowhere is it written on the sliding supermarket doors that by crossing the threshold your vibrant, distinctive local economy will begin to wither,” wrote Andrew Simms, the author of 2007’s Tescopoly: How One Shop Came Out on Top and Why it Matters.

There have been concerns down the years over the impact of Tesco’s big stores on high street rivals. Photograph: Kumar Sriskandan/Alamy

By the time Tesco tried to take on Amazon and Apple with the Hudl tablet computer in 2013, it seemed there was no area of life where the supermarket did not reach. Cafes and restaurant chains, such as Harris + Hoole and Giraffe, had been acquired to help fill the giant stores, which had become unloved.

Today, Hudl, Homeplus and even Giraffe may be just a memory of a hubristic time when Tesco had operations across the world from the US to South Korea, while regulators have since acted to prevent the holding of land to block rivals. However, with its globetrotting ventures much reduced, those close to the business say remaining the grocery kingpin in the UK and selling a wider variety of products to shoppers has become even more important.

Kings of convenience

At its peak in 2007, Tesco’s market share neared 32%, driven by huge scale and punchy marketing. Today that figure stands at 28.3%, up from as low as 26.5% in 2020. Although the figure remains some way off its high, Tesco’s new UK boss Ashwin Prasad reportedly told suppliers the retailer wants to top 30% again. Its nearest competitor, Sainsbury’s, trails well behind, on 15.3%.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/oct/19/tesco-britain-biggest-retailer-dominates

TESCO PLC

 

TESCO UK

 

Fiscal year is March-February. 

All values GBP Millions.

2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 5-year trend 

INCOME STATEMENT

Sales/Revenue 61,344 57,887 58,091 63,911 57,493

 Sales Growth 5.97% -0.35% -9.11% 11.16% - 

Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) incl. D&A 56,650 54,028 53,680 59,403 54,092

 COGS Growth 4.85% 0.65% -9.63% 9.82% -

 Gross Income 4,694 3,859 4,411 4,508 3,401

 Gross Income Growth 21.64% -12.51% -2.15% 32.55% -

 Gross Profit Margin 7.65% - - - -

 SG&A Expense 1,984 1,767 1,736 1,979 1,765

 SGA Growth 12.28% 1.79% -12.28% 12.12% - 

EBIT 2,710 - - - - Interest Expense 652 695 722 847 400

 Interest Expense Growth -6.19% -3.74% -14.76% 111.75% -

 Pretax Income 2,018 610 1,036 1,585 1,306

 Pretax Income Growth 230.82% -41.12% -34.64% 21.36% -

 Pretax Margin 3.29% - - - - 

Net Income 1,521 528 736 1,272 992

 Net Income Growth 188.07% -28.26% -42.14% 28.23% -

 Net Margin 2.48% - - - - 

CASH FLOW STATEMENT

 Net Income before Extraordinaries 2,560 1,547 (150) 2,649 1,839

 Net Income Growth 65.48% 1131.33% -105.66% 44.05% -

 Funds from Operations 3,430 394 3,651 3,262 2,268 

Net Operating Cash Flow 3,792 640 108 2,614 2,858

 Net Operating Cash Flow Growth 492.50% 492.59% -95.87% -8.54% -

 Net Operating Cash Flow / Sales 6.18% 1.11% 0.19% 4.09% 4.97%

 Capital Expenditures (1,178) (1,377) (1,204) (1,292) (1,637) 

Capital Expenditures Growth 14.45% -14.37% 6.81% 21.08% -

 Capital Expenditures / Sales -1.92% -2.38% -2.07% -2.02% -2.85% 

Free Cash Flow 2,843 (531) (895) 1,513 1,418

 Free Cash Flow Growth 635.40% 40.67% -159.15% 6.70% -

 Free Cash Flow Yield 9.52% - - - -

 Cash Dividends Paid - Total (731) (5,858) (656) (357) (82) 

BALANCE SHEET

 Cash & Short Term Investments 4,647 3,699 5,415 3,373 5,156

 Cash & Short Term Investments Growth 25.63% -31.69% 60.54% -34.58% -

 Cash & ST Investments / Total Assets 9.42% 8.13% 10.19% 5.93% 11.49%

 ST Debt & Current Portion LT Debt 1,272 1,655 2,817 2,209 1,479 

Long-Term Debt 14,085 14,015 14,973 15,439 7,142 

 Total Accounts Receivable 4,705 4,397 5,697 6,438 6,153 

Accounts Receivable Growth 7.00% -22.82% -11.51% 4.63% -

 Accounts Receivable Turnover 13.04 13.17 10.20 9.93 9.34

 Inventories 2,339 2,069 2,433 2,617 2,264 

Accounts Payable 9,181 8,399 8,922 9,131 8,994 

Accounts Payable Growth 9.31% -5.86% -2.29% 1.52% -

 Total Current Assets 12,189 10,807 13,608 12,480 13,600

 Total Current Liabilities 16,125 15,721 18,656 20,973 19,233

 Current Ratio 0.76 0.69 0.73 0.60 0.71

 Quick Ratio 0.61 0.56 0.60 0.47 0.59

 Cash Ratio 0.29 0.24 0.29 0.16 0.27

 Net Property, Plant & Equipment 22,780 22,896 26,108 26,899 18,521 

 Total Assets 49,351 45,512 53,147 56,898 44,884

 Assets - Total - Growth 8.44% -14.37% -6.59% 26.77% -

 Asset Turnover 1.29 - - - -

 Return On Average Assets 3.20% - - - -

 Total Liabilities 33,707 33,453 39,778 43,466 34,404

 Total Liabilities / Total Assets 68.30% 73.50% 74.85% 76.39% 76.65%

 Common Equity (Total) 15,660 12,077 13,391 13,456 10,502 

 Retained Earnings 10,022 6,329 7,168 7,121 4,290 Treasury Stock (365) (188) (250) (179) (16) Common Equity / Total Assets 31.73% 26.54% 25.20% 23.65% 23.40%

 Total Shareholders' Equity 15,660 12,077 13,391 13,456 10,502

 Total Shareholders' Equity / Total Assets 31.73% 26.54% 25.20% 23.65% 23.40%

 Accumulated Minority Interest (16) (18) (22) (24) (22)

 Total Equity 15,644 12,059 13,369 13,432 10,480

 Liabilities & Shareholders' Equity 49,351 45,512 53,147 56,898 44,884

Average Growth Rates 

Tesco PLC 

Past Five Years Ending 02/28/2022 (Fiscal Year) 

Revenue +1.34%

 Net Income +10.73%

 Earnings Per Share +0.51% 

Capital Spending -5.61%

 Gross Margin +9.55%

 Cash Flow +20.10% 

 KEY STOCK DATA 

P/E Ratio (TTM) 18.00(12/16/22) 

EPS (TTM) £0.12 

Market Cap £16.28 B 

Shares Outstanding 7.37 B 

Public Float 7.16 B 

Yield 5.20%(12/16/22) 

Latest Dividend p3.84999998(11/25/22) 

Ex-Dividend Date 10/13/22

Tesco Grows Its Market Share For the First Time in 5 Years

The supermarket giant’s turnaround plan appears to be working.

Tesco grew market share for the first time in five years over the last three months, the clearest sign to date that Britain’s biggest supermarket chain is recovering from years of turmoil to accelerate away from rivals.

"Tesco has attracted a further 228,000 shoppers through its doors to help the grocer grow to a 28.2% share of the market – its first year-on-year market share gain since 2011,” said Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel.

“Sales growth has been strongest among family shoppers, while improved trading from its larger supermarket and Extra stores has supported this month’s gains.”

Tesco shares traded up 2% to 205 pence, outperforming Britain’s bluechip index which was trading 0.8% higher.

http://fortune.com/2016/10/18/tesco-sainsburys-market-share/

CEO of Tesco - Customers are buying more things, more often, at Tesco

26 June 2015

First Quarter Trading Statement

Tesco PLC’s First Quarter Trading Statement 2015/16 was announced today at7.00am. To view the full announcement, please go to: www.tescoplc.com/1Q2015.

Highlights

- UK like-for-like sales performance improved to (1.3)% despite significant deflation and the impact of reduced couponing

- UK like-for-like volumes up 1.4%; transactions up 1.3%; 180,000 more customers shopping with us*

- Like-for-like sales growth in Central Europe and Turkey; Central European restructure largely complete

- Some improvement in performance in Asia, in challenging market conditions

- Short-term volatility remains; transformation programme progressing


Dave Lewis – Chief Executive

“We set out to serve our customers a little better every day and the improvements we are making are starting to have an effect.  We are fixing the fundamentals of shopping to win back customers and relying less on short-term couponing.  Customers are experiencing better service, better availability and lower, more stable prices and are buying more things, more often, at Tesco.

These improvements have come during the restructuring of our office and store management teams, which testifies to the focus, skill and commitment of colleagues across the business.  We have also seen an improved performance in our international markets, as we continue to focus on serving customers better.

Whilst the market is still challenging and volatility is likely to remain a feature of short-term performance, these first quarter results represent another step in the right direction.”

To view the full announcement, please go to: www.tescoplc.com/1Q2015.

Contacts

Investor Relations:
Chris Griffith: 01992 644 800

Press:
Tom Hoskin: 01992 644 645
Brunswick: 0207 404 5959

We are a team of over 500,000 people in 12 markets dedicated to providing the most compelling offer to our customers.

Tesco - profit downgrade and 75 percent cut to it's interim dividend

By James Davey, Neil Maidment and Kate Holton

It was an oversight that led to a 4 billion pound drop in Tesco's market value and the suspension of four senior executives. The newly installed CEO called in forensic accountants and lawyers to find out what went wrong.LONDON (Reuters) - "Things are always unnoticed, until they're noticed," Tesco Chairman Richard Broadbent said when asked how Britain's biggest retailer had failed to spot a 250 million pound ($410 million) sized hole in its first-half profits.

Whether conspiracy or cock-up, the scandal raises doubts over the management and financial oversight at Britain's largest private sector employer, now in the midst of the gravest crisis in its 95-year history.

"That whole finance organization must be in a world of hurt given what has gone on. The rigor and analysis and the focus seems to have fallen away a little bit," one former UK Tesco director told Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject.

Tesco had once appeared unstoppable, boasting two decades of uninterrupted earnings growth as it bulldozed its way to dominance. Things began to go wrong in 2011.

It has now issued three profit warnings in two months with the latest causing the most alarm - the overstatement of its half-year profit forecast by 250 million pounds due to the early recognition of payments by suppliers and the pushing back of costs.

Investors, analysts and some former employees are questioning whether an aggressive culture influenced the way the company handled its finances - especially when trading slowed - and perhaps prevented staff from coming forward to warn that the numbers no longer stacked up.

Tesco has declined to comment on what may have happened until a review has been completed but chairman Broadbent has described it as "something completely out of the ordinary".

The revelation has also sparked scrutiny of the upper echelons of the company. The senior executives who ran Tesco during its glory years of the 1990s and 2000s have all left and the board lacks retail experience.

"The chairman has been the leader of this organization that seems to have failed at every turn," said David Herro of large Tescon investor Harris Associates.

Four former senior Tesco executives have told Reuters that during the 2011-2014 CEO tenure of Phil Clarke, he repeatedly clashed with directors, who found him reluctant to take advice. During that time four of the company's most senior executives quit, taking a combined 109 years of experience with them.

Clarke has declined to comment on his management style but defenders of his record point out that he was battling the most difficult market conditions in decades.

The company's head of digital told a conference this week Tesco was too big and complex to be run by "one general".

WHO'S IN CHARGE?

People outside the company have many questions - not least who has been signing off on profit forecasts in the last three months which turned out, quickly, to be wrong.

By the time the group issued the second of its recent profit warnings on August. 29, Clarke, a 40-year Tesco veteran, was technically still CEO but was working his notice while Laurie McIlwee, the firm's chief financial officer since 2009, had quit on April 4. McIlwee declined to comment for this article.

"It seems unbelievable that a retailing colossus like Tesco should not have a full-time finance director," said Adrian Bailey, head of parliament's business committee.

Tesco's finance function had been further weakened in June when Mike Iddon quit as Tesco's group finance director, planning, treasury and tax.

Tesco says that after McIlwee's resignation on April 4 it set up a group of senior finance personnel, reporting directly to Clarke. However the company has declined to say who was in that group and Clarke was himself working down his notice.

"What was the board's scrutiny of the (second) profit warning (on Aug. 29) and numbers that they put out, because you would expect it to be extreme?" asked one retail audit committee chairman, in reference to the profit downgrade and 75 percent cut to Tesco's interim dividend.

"If you're a non-executive director and you're being asked to put out those kind of profound numbers and you've got no finance director and you've got no CEO to stand beside them, how do you know they're right?"

OVERLY AMBITIOUS

Tesco said the 250 million pound overstatement principally related to its supplier contracts within the food business of its UK division - its home market which generated 48.2 billion pounds of revenue in 2013-14.

People familiar with how Tesco operates said it had been overly ambitious when predicting sales. As they then slowed, the cash rebates paid out by suppliers as incentives also dropped.

Tesco has declined to comment but said it is investigating the accounts. New CEO Dave Lewis has told staff the firm's culture needs to change.

The former UK Tesco director believes the accounting mistake could have come about due to the combination of a loss of experience in the finance department and the fact that the business is now shrinking.

"You had a business that used to be growing and had algorithms that worked," the former director said. "When the business is flat to declining and you don't really know how much you're declining by, you can get that wrong very quickly."

During two decades of uninterrupted growth Tesco had rarely made a mistake with its numbers - it issued its first profit warning in living memory in 2012 as the competition ramped up.

However, analysts and shareholders have more recently raised concerns that Clarke and his colleagues had instilled a more aggressive approach as pressure to revive the business increased.

Bernstein analyst Bruno Monteyne, who was previously a supply chain director of Tesco Asia, said managers - possibly under pressure to improve earnings - might have brought forward promotions and the right to book supplier rebates.

Tesco declined to comment.

Cantor analyst Mike Dennis, who last year questioned how the company could be maintaining its trading margin at a time of falling sales and rising costs, noted that staff had been incentivized via share schemes to maintain the measure.

PwC [PWC.UL] Tesco's auditors since 1983, had highlighted the rebate issue in its 2013-14 report as an "area of focus" due to the "risk of manipulation". Broadbent says Tesco's finance function was "working well with considerable oversight".

THIN ON TOP

Analysts and investors have pointed out that the board is now very thin on retail experience. Broadbent, chairman for almost three years, was a former public official and banker.

Others on the board have experience in telecoms, media, finance and cars, while Patrick Cescau, the board's senior independent director, is a former chairman of Unilever, one of Tesco's biggest suppliers.

"In a situation such as this, the buck stops at the board," said Guy Jubb, head of governance and stewardship at Tesco investor Standard Life Investments.

Having drafted in the replacements for Clarke and McIlwee earlier than expected, the board now has two executive directors in the form of new CEO Lewis from Unilever and CFO Alan Stewart, formerly of Marks & Spencer. Stewart was appointed during the time of former CEO Clarke.

Tesco declined to comment on the retail experience of its board, or on who was involved in the planning of the Aug. 29 statement. Trading statements do not have to be checked by an external accounting firm.

But the numbers are now being pored over.

A swathe of managers have had to hand in their laptops and phones as part of the internal probe and Britain's Serious Fraud Office has said it is watching events closely.

The country's financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, has launched a full investigation and lawmakers are also considering whether to grill past and present executives over the error.

(1 US dollar = 0.6103 British pound)

(Additional reporting by Dominique Vidalon in Paris and Tom Bergin in London; editing by Janet McBride)

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/tescos-250-million-pound-black-060334406.html