Online sales buoy modest sales growth at Tesco

Internet purchases supported a moderate rise in sales at Tesco, according to the FTSE-100 supermarket chain's latest trading statement published on Thursday morning.

Group sales in the six weeks to January 5th increased by 3.8% including petrol while the international business performed at a similar level to the third quarter.

In the UK, like-for-like sales edged up by 1.8%, propelled by stronger food performance than experienced in the previous year and a further improvement from the third quarter.

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Increasing online performance drove part of the rise in overall sales, with Tesco Direct purchases up by more than 16%.

Internet-purchased food sales increased by 18% over the five week Christmas and New Year period. This was underpinned by more than 500,000 food orders being fulfilled in the week before Christmas, with almost 5% of online goods picked up by customers using Tesco's drive-through "Click & Collect" service.

The group's international business performed at a similar level to that seen in the third quarter. Asia delivered an increase in total sales of 7.6%, with a slightly better like-for-like sales growth rate than the third quarter reflecting stronger performance in Thailand.

Following a period of nine months during which Philip Clarke temporarily led the group, the supermarket chain announced that Chris Bush had been appointed managing director.

MF