Tesco, Britain’s biggest retailer, on Thursday (Jan 11) upgraded its profit outlook for the second time in four months as it reported a better-than-expected rise in underlying UK sales for the key Christmas trading period.

The supermarket group, which has a near 28 per cent share of Britain’s grocery market, said it now expected a year to end-February 2024 retail adjusted operating profit, its key profit figure, of £2.75 billion (S$4.66 billion) versus the £2.49 billion made in 2022/23.

It was previously forecasting £2.6 billion to £2.7 billion.

“Our continued investments across the full breadth of our customer offer have resulted in a stronger trading performance than anticipated,” Tesco said.

It said UK like-for-like sales rose 6.8 per cent over the six weeks to Jan 6 and were up 7.9 per cent in its third quarter to Nov 25, having been up 8.4 per cent in the second quarter. REUTERS