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<\/p>\nSupermarket group Tesco said uncertainty about the economic impact of the conflict in the Middle East on consumers had clouded its outlook, and in the worse case could result in profit falling this year.<\/p>\n
For its 2026\/27 year, Tesco forecast adjusted operating profit of between \u00a33 billion and \u00a33.3 billion compared to the \u00a33.152 billion made in 2025\/26, which was up 0.6% on the year before.<\/p>\n
“Much will depend upon the duration of the conflict and in particular, the potential implications for UK households and the economy more broadly,” Tesco said today.<\/p>\n
Before today’s update, analysts were on average forecasting operating profit of \u00a33.23 billion for 2026\/27.<\/p>\n
Tesco said it is targeting a further \u00a3500m of costs savings this year to help fund investments in its customer offer.<\/p>\n
Surging fuel prices caused by the Iran war weighed on consumers last month, dampening household spending as travel plans were shelved.<\/p>\n
Reports have also suggested food availability could be hit by a possible shortage of CO2 gas which is a key input in the food industry.<\/p>\n
Tesco’s sales, excluding VAT and fuel, in 2025\/26 were \u00a366.59 billion, up 4.3%.<\/p>\n
Shares in Tesco have increased 37% over the last year but are down 4% over the last month.<\/p>\n
Tesco said its Irish sales rose by 4.6% to \u00a33.239 billon, with new space supporting its sales growth, which included the opening of four new superstores and five Express stores during the year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Its said its food like-for-like sales grew by 5.1%, with a strong contribution from its core fresh food offer. Food growth was further supported by a strong “Tesco Finest” performance where sales were up 11.8% year-on-year.<\/p>\n
Tesco said it saw like-for-like sales growth across all channels, with Online delivering 17.4% growth year-on-year.<\/p>\n
The company launched the Tesco Whoosh same day delivery service in Ireland this year, which is now in 31 stores. It said it expect the new service to meaningfully contribute to its online business in the future.<\/p>\n
“Large store sales grew 3.1% as we continue to improve price competitiveness in the market, with our price index improving year-on-year,” the company said.<\/p>\n
“Non-food sales were broadly flat on an underlying basis when excluding the impact from the transition to a commission model with the Entertainer for toys,” it added.<\/p>\n
Tesco Ireland Geoff Byrne said the retailer’s unwavering focus on the customer and helping with what matters most to them underpins its strong business performance in Ireland. <\/p>\n
“Looking ahead, we expect the market to remain competitive, and as global events continue to create uncertainty and put pressure on household budgets, customers will expect even more from us,” Mr Byrne said. <\/p>\n
“Our focus is clear, prioritising continued customer value, providing the best quality Irish products, strong availability, and making it convenient for modern consumers to shop when and how they like,” he said.<\/p>\n
He said the company last year invested significantly in store openings and upgrades, as well as in its online business, bringing Tesco to customers in nine new locations and introducing our rapid\u2011delivery service, Whoosh. <\/p>\n
“We also invested significantly in pay and benefits for our colleagues and created over 400 new jobs nationwide. As a result, we delivered strong like-for-like sales growth in Ireland and grew our market share for the fourth consecutive year, reflecting the commitment of colleagues across our business,” he added. <\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Ken Murphy, chief executive of Tesco, said the company is committed to doing whatever it can to help keep down the cost of the weekly shop.<\/p>\n
“With the conflict in the Middle East creating further uncertainty for consumers and the economy more broadly, that commitment matters more than ever,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Over the last year, despite cost pressures from new regulation, we have increased our investments in keeping prices low, further improving quality and offering even better service. Customers are choosing to shop more with us as a result, leading to our highest market share for over a decade,” he added.<\/p>\n
He also said he was not yet seeing any meaningful inflation coming through from the Iran war on groceries, and the conflict’s impact so far had just been on fuel prices.<\/p>\n
“We are not seeing any meaningful inflation coming through, with the obvious exception of the cost prices we’ve seen on fuel,” Ken Murphy told reporters on a call today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Supermarket group Tesco said uncertainty about the economic impact of the conflict in the Middle East on consumers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-402887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}