Supermarket group Tesco reported falling sales for the fourth quarter in a row today despite its £500m sterling price-cutting campaign.
In the UK, where it has 2,700 stores, Tesco recorded a 0.9% decline in like-for-like sales excluding VAT and petrol in the 13 weeks to November 26, equal to the drop seen in the previous quarter.
Despite the decline, the grocer insisted the results of its Big Price Drop, which saw the cost of 3,000 everyday products slashed, were "promising" as food volumes rose by a whole percentage point, offsetting the deflationary impact of its price cuts.
It said that like-for-like growth in Ireland, where it has opened a number of new stores in recent months, remains slightly below last year. But it described its performance here as ''very encouraging'' - ahead of the market and slightly better than the last two quarters.
Tesco said it saw a significant slowdown in Asia, which has driven the overall group performance in previous months, where like-for-like sales grew 0.8%, compared with 3.9% in the second quarter, as the impact of flooding in Thailand and warm autumn temperatures in South Korea and China took their toll.
Overall like-for-like sales growth in Europe increased to 0.9% from 01.% in the second quarter with a growing contribution coming from its remodelled Extra hypermarkets.
Sales at its US Fresh & Easy stores were up over 29% with further double-digit like-for-like sales growth of 11.9%. It said this was driven by both increased customer numbers and higher average spend.
