Tesco hints at Irish upturn

Tesco’s Irish operations saw a marked slowing in sales decline in the first half of the company’s current financial year despite its parent seeing a near 55% drop in operating profit.

On a group-wide basis, the British supermarket giant yesterday reported an operating profit of £354m (€482m) for the six months to the end of August, down from a profit of £779m for the corresponding period last year.

However, the retailer said it remains on course to turn a profit of around £950m for the year to the end of February.