Tesco profits soar to £900m (€1.34bn)

Supermarket giant Tesco continued to put its rivals in the shade today following an 18.7% rise in half-year profits to £908m (€1.34bn).

The group, which has more than 250,000 staff and around 1,780 stores in the UK, also reported an 14.1% jump in sales to £18.8bn (€28bn) for the six months to August 13 as it bucked the downward trend elsewhere in the retail sector. The figure for the UK was ahead 8.2% on a like-for-like basis.