Retailer Tesco continued its domination of the supermarket sector today with another bumper set of sales figures for the Christmas period.
And ominously for its rivals, the Hertfordshire-based company will boost its “flexibility and firepower” with a placing of new shares set to raise around £810m.
The move comes after Tesco achieved a total rise in UK sales for the seven weeks to 3 January of 15.4% – the figure being 7.5% when store openings and closures are stripped out.
Tesco said growth was seen across the board, with its home entertainment business achieving a sales rise of 29.4% after strong demand for DVDs and CDs.
The like-for-like sales performance for the UK is an improvement on the 6.6% seen in the previous 14 weeks to 15 November.
Chief executive Sir Terry Leahy said: “Now is the right time to strengthen our finances further so that we can take full advantage of the opportunities available.”
References: EGi News 13/01/04
