Tesco announces disappointing update
While Tesco has for many years been the leading retailer in the UK, today's third-quarter update was at the bottom end of analyst's forecasts and appears to show that growth in sales has started to slow again. There had been hopes of a more positive update on the third-quarter after a number of positive signs over the last few weeks. So where does this leave Tesco in the short to medium term?
Even though like-for-like sales increased by 2.8% during the third quarter this was towards the bottom end of analyst's forecasts and rather disappointing. Analysts had been looking for a like-for-like increase in sales of around 3% with reduced food inflation suggested as the main factor for the apparent slowdown. This now begs the question, if Tesco is struggling to maintain earlier sales growth then surely the likes of Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury's must also be struggling to some extent?
It will be interesting to see future updates from the likes of Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury so we can gauge the individual performance of each company and the sector as a whole. How ironic that the supermarkets have performed well during the recession and now that the UK is apparently pulling out of the recession they appear to be experiencing a slowdown in sales growth.
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