Tesco ‘encouraged’

TESCO said yesterday that its Irish performance was very encouraging — ahead of the market and slightly better than during the last two quarters — while like-for-like growth remains below last year.

However, revenue at its British stores open at least a year fell 0.9%, excluding fuel and value-added tax, in the fiscal third quarter ended Nov 26, Cheshunt, England-based Tesco said yesterday.

That was steeper than the median estimate of a 0.7% decline compiled by Bloomberg from seven analysts, and matched the second quarter’s drop.