Tesco sales rise, but market share slips

Tesco has seen sales rise in both the UK grocery and non-food markets alike, according to a trading update just released by the company, but overall market share is slipping.

Britain’s biggest retailer reported like-for-like sales growth of 5.5% (excluding petrol sales) in the three months to November 19.

Further growth of 3.7% was generated by the opening of new stores, and sales in the nascent non-food sector grew by more than 10%.

International sales grew by 16% at constant exchange rates, and 150 new stores totalling 3.5m square feet are on track to open in the next six months, Tesco said.

But market data from TNS Superpanel shows that Tesco is still losing share to Morrisons and Sainsbury’s, whose share of sales rose 0.1% to 11.5% and 15.7% respectively.