Tesco shares dropped by 5% as sales disappoint

Tesco reported a drop in sales in the 13 weeks to May 25th causing the share prices to drop by 5per cent.

09:31 06 June 2013

Tesco has released their quarterly sales report. Britain’s biggest retailer confirmed that like-for-like sales in the UK dropped by 1per cent in the 13 weeks to May 25th. Sales in Europe and Asia dropped by 5.5per cent and 3.8per cent respectively.

The Horsemeat scandal is thought to be a reason why Tesco sales dipped. In regards to this, Tesco was one company who were linked to it as a number of their own-brand meat products were found to have horsemeat in.

Matt Piner, research director at retail consultancy Conlumino said the likes of “Sainsbury's and Morrisons were able to spin the episode into a positive”.

Meanwhile, Philip Clarke, chief executive of Tesco, said that their £1billion turnaround plan for the UK is on track. He said: “This is as we planned it would be. The strategy is to go into higher-growth, higher-margin products.”