Tesco third-quarter sales dip 1.5%

Tesco has posted a third quarter sales dip of 1.5% but said figures were up over the Christmas period.

The retail giant has been battling to halt a decline in sales in the face of stiff competition from German discounters Lidl and Aldi.

The latest figures are better than expected by some City commentators with group like-for-like sales growth of 2.1% in the six weeks ending on January 9 and UK like-for-like sales growth of 1.3%.

The third quarter figures for the 13 weeks ending on November 28 were not so positive, with group like-for-like sales down 0.5% and the UK figure down 1.5%.

But these were an improvement on last month, when the supermarket chain reported a sales fall of 3.4% in the 12 weeks to December 6 compared with a year ago.

Chief executive Dave Lewis said: “Our Christmas performance was strong, benefiting from lower prices on an outstanding range of products.”