Reporting its full-year results for 2004 today, the supermarket saw pre-tax profit rise by 20.5% to 拢2,029bn, on the back of sales of 拢37.1bn, up by 12.4% on last year.
Growth on non-grocery items such as clothing, electrical goods and petrol, was up by more than 17%, and responsible for 拢6bn in sales. Tesco attributed a 28% rise in sales at its clothing labels Cherokee and Florence & Fred in part to regular coverage in the fashion press.
Tesco chief executive Terry Leahy said: "These results again demonstrate the broad appeal of the Tesco brand.
"They also show that our new growth businesses -- in international, in non-food and in services -- have contributed as much profit as the entire business was making in 1997."
While the results statement from the supermarket chain was almost unrelentingly positive news, Tesco is already seeing a backlash. A survey looking at the prices of 12,000 products in UK supermarkets, showed that while Tesco reduced the price of 2,983 items during the survey period, it increased the price of 2,852 other products at the same time.
Nonetheless, Tesco said that it had seen deflation in its UK stores as it invested in lower prices.
Tesco retains Lowe on its 拢42m creative account. The relationship had looked to be under threat due to a number of high-profile departures at the agency, but in February Lowe said that Tesco was committed to staying at the agency.
Tesco's long-running campaign starring 'Dotty', the customer from hell played by Prunella Scales, was dropped last year. It has been replaced by a price-led campaign focusing on specific products. The chain was named advertiser of the year by 北京赛车pk10 magazine.
The company said today that it planned to create 25,000 new jobs globally, and open 60 new Express stores in the UK, along with converting 26 T&S Stores, the chain it acquired in 2002. During 2004, it opened its 100th hypermarket in the UK.
Separately, Tesco has quietly sold iVillage.co.uk back to iVillage, the company from which it took control of the site two years ago. The deal, done on March 31, gives iVillage Inc 100% ownership of the UK women's portal.
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