Tesco opens new Mayo store, confident of meeting market expectations

Tesco Ireland today opened its new £8 million store in Castlebar, Co Mayo. The new store will generate over 100 new jobs in the region.

The Castlebar store is the company's second purpose-build supermarket to open in Ireland since the company took over Quinnsworth in 1997. It brings to 76 the number of Tesco stores here. The company has invested over £200 million to date in developing new stores here and in refurbishing and rebranding the stores acquired from Quinnsworth.

Meanwhile, the parent company in Britian said today that it was confident its full-year results would meet market expectations.

Tesco, one of Europe's best-performing food retail stocks, earlier stepped up a price-cutting campaign in the battle of Britain's supermarket chains, but said in a statement this morning it believed it would meet forecasts.

'Management remains confident that it will deliver results which are broadly in line with the current consensus forecast,' the group said in a statement ahead of the closed period before its full-year results are announced on April 10.

Analysts are expecting profits for the year ended February, to top £1 billion for the first time in the company's history. Most forecasts are bunched around £1.060 billion, up from £933 million last year.

Tesco said at the weekend it was taking £70 million off prices, reducing more than 750 key grocery and household products from today. Typical households would save between 7.4% and 21% on weekly shopping bills, it said.

The results to be reported in April will include the crucial Christmas trading period, during which Tesco outperformed most of its rivals. It said in January that UK like-for-like sales in stores open more than a year were up 6.9% over the seven weeks ending January 6, including the busy run-up to Christmas.