Tesco is one of the worlds leading international retailers. Since the company first the trading name of Tesco, in the mid 1920s, the group has expanded into different formats, different markets and different sectors. The UKs leading retailer Tesco was floated on the stock exchange in 1947 and in 1995 took over rival Sainsburys position as the UK number one. The principal activity of the group is food retailing, with over 2,000 stores worldwide. Tesco has a long term strategy for growth, based on four key parts: growth in the Core UK business, to expand by growing internationally, to be as strong in non-food as in food and to follow customers into new retailing services. The company launched a home shopping service in 2000, allowing customers to order their shopping online. Tesco is now expanding its convenience stores and overseas into areas such as Taiwan, Malaysia, Poland, the US and Ireland.

Upper graph = 12 month share price with 6 month moving average
Lower graph = 12 month volume (red line = volume average).

As predicted Jack's doing little to stop Tesco losing market share to Aldi and Lidl. The board must be extremely worried.

Trading Statement Thursday 10th.

3Q and Christmas Trading Statement 18/19

Headlines (3Q: 13 weeks to 24 November 2018; Christmas period: 6 weeks to 5 January 2019)

· UK & ROI: Strong Christmas benefiting from an increasingly competitive offer for customers

o UK & ROI Christmas LFL sales +2.6%, outperforming market in UK in both volume and value terms

- Quality and value perception1 both up significantly year-on-year: +3.5pts and +4.5pts respectively
- Market outperformance in all key categories: food, clothing and general merchandise

o UK & ROI 3Q LFL sales +1.9% reflecting transition to new own brands and subsequent resetting of mix in UK
- 'Exclusively at Tesco' roll-out 95% complete by end-3Q, with 82% of customers buying into the range

o Booker delivering strong growth (LFL excl. tobacco: 3Q 10.7%; Christmas 8.2%); contract wins last year annualise early in Christmas period

· Central Europe: Continuing to improve the quality of our business

o Excluding Poland, LFL sales increased in 19-week period, with +1.1% LFL for Christmas

o 19-week LFL performance is after impact of reducing unprofitable general merchandise (c.(1.8)% impact) and fewer trading days in Poland due to Sunday trading regulations (c.(1.2)%)

o Polish store portfolio reshaping continuing with 14 stores closed during the period and 32 more planned

· Asia: Stronger underlying performance

o LFL performance reflects further changes to pricing, promotions and couponing in Thailand

o Good progress made with suppliers towards new commercial approach

o Restructured store operations, reducing costs and underpinning profit recovery.

more.....

Polish results disappointing but believe branding was wrong as "TesPolski Sklepp"
would have been an outright winner..