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).

Tesco's year-old revamp weaned on fresh food focus

(Reuters) - After a decade pushing its non-food business, Tesco (TSCO.L), Britain's biggest retailer is changing, and a conspicuous focus on fresh produce greets shoppers at its newly styled superstores.

"Customers were saying they felt we didn't have the right products in our shop," said Kiran Sudan, store manager at the recently refurbished Kensington superstore in west London, whose catchment area is a multi-cultural mishmash of affluent dwellings and social housing.

An interesting read before the Tesco results.

Fresh & Easy failure: Can UK firms make it in the US?

Aspiring actors, tourists, mothers and office workers are packing the Hollywood Fresh & Easy supermarket, shopping for a quick sushi lunch, a post-workout protein fix, or their weekly grocery stop.

It doesn't look like a business in turmoil and many regular customers are surprised to hear that the store could close.

Final Results

HIGHLIGHTS

· £3.5bn trading profit - year-on-year performance largely reflects UK reinvestment

· Final dividend maintained at 10.13p, giving full-year dividend of 14.76p

· Good progress in the UK, delivering improved results - for customers and for Tesco

· Strong online performance: Group sales of over £3bn for the first time - up 13%

· Confirming exit from the United States - process well-advanced

· F+F brand clothing sales now exceed £1bn in UK alone, with +9% LFL sales growth

· Clear approach to future growth, capital expenditure, returns and cash, providing clarity for shareholders

Profit down 1.9bn

No dates on divi payment ?

Its in the update!!!

"The Board has approved a maintained final dividend of 10.13p per share, giving a full year dividend of 14.76p, demonstrating our confidence that the steps we have taken in 2012/13 will set the Group on track to resume growth in 2013/14 and beyond. The final dividend will be paid on 5 July 2013 to shareholders on the Register of Members at the close of business on 26 April 2013."

Cheers Skinny

So why are the shares being ditched, why not hold til 26th? Am I missing something here? Polite answers only please.

I prefer shopping in Lidls these days.

Espirito Santo Execution Noble Sell 370.55 310.00 310.00 Reiterates

must be over their sell by date!

Thanks Skinny and everyone. Now I understand :-0

Shore Capital Buy 375.58 - - Reiterates

Prime Markets Buy 371.53 389.00 389.00 Reiterates

Credit Suisse Outperform 371.53 430.00 430.00 Reiterates

Thanks Skinny for figures, bit more encouraging as I'm holding out for divi.
P.S. Are you really skinny?

Not as skinny as I was when the nickname was bestowed on me @50 years ago - but still relatively 'lean'!

I've put a stop in to take a minimum 12 points from an overnight short - a splash in the ocean compared to my SIPPed position however.

HL have their TSCO trades @35.99% sell /64.01% buy.

Barclays comment today:
"Our caution ahead of this set of numbers seems to have been justified, given that: 2H profits were c4.5% below expectations; sales trends deteriorated in Europe and Asia; significant write-downs were required on UK property and Eastern European goodwill; there is not a decisive outcome for the US; and that the new ROCE guidance is very broad. If we look for positives then we could say that UK margins were in line with Tesco’s guidance from a year ago – and that the company remains happy with a 5.2% margin going forwards. Six months ago this would probably have positively reassured the market, but we think that doubts on this guidance have been subsiding already. Tesco has said that it plans to spend 3.5-4.0% of sales on capex, which would represent a small decline from the c4.1% of sales spent in 2012/13. Overall, we would expect consensus earnings to fall by perhaps 3% today, with the share price likely to underperform the sector.
Key figure: FY12/13 trading profit came in at £3.453bn, compared with our expectation of £3.544bn and consensus of £3.530bn (note that the US is now being treated as discontinued). The UK was in line with expectations, (£2,272m vs Barc £2,275m) and implying a UK margin of 5.21%. Regionally, Asia was in line with consensus (£661m vs consensus £658m) but Europe was far weaker, coming in 15% below expectations (£329m vs Barclays £390m, consensus £406m) – ie close to a 30% miss for 2H.
Likely reaction, from a share price perspective: The share price reaction depends partly on the investor meeting but given that Tesco shares are up 15% year to date, outperforming the DJ Stoxx by 9% – and today’s results are overall disappointing, we would expect some pressure. Although it is good to see Tesco deliver the 5.2% UK margin – this was expected by the market – on the other hand performance in Europe is weak and results are also spoiled by a number of write downs (£500m for European goodwill, £100m for more PPI, £1.0bn for US (expected) and £800m for UK property).

Morgan Stanley summary:
"Overall, we view the UK food retail sector as unattractive, with the exception of Sainsbury which we rate as Overweight given its differentiated strategy. We rate both Tesco and Morrisons as Underweight."

does TSCO have any upside in the short term. we think not , looking for 330p.

All coming back to haunt Tesco. Well done Mr Leahy you cut them to the bone, no store investment. Take them into the states where very few if any retailers have succeeded . Then jump ship before the shi- hits the fan.