Supermarket Tesco’s sales rose by 9.2% in the first quarter of 2020 as shoppers bought more food during fewer trips throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
Group like for like sales for the retailer grew 8.2% to £13.4bn, with the amount being bought also up by 64%, despite the number of shoppers visiting its stores dropping by almost a third in the 13 weeks to the 30th May.
However, Tesco said that the costs of safety-related consumables and personal protective equipment across its stores is expected to cost around £840m.
These costs will be partially mitigated by the UK business rates relief of £532m and a contribution from additional food sales.
“In just five weeks, we doubled our online capacity to help support our most vulnerable customers and transformed our stores with extensive social distancing measures so that everyone who was able to shop in-store could do so safely.
The supermarkets online capacity more than doubled in this period, increasing from 600k orders to over 1.3 million orders a week. It was also able to add 590k vulnerable customers to its customer base throughout the pandemic.
Tesco chief executive, Dave Lewis, said: “Through a very challenging period for everyone, Tesco colleagues have gone above and beyond, and I’m extremely proud of what they’ve achieved. Their selfless efforts, combined with our embedded strategic advantages in stores and online, have helped to ensure that everyone can get the food they need in a safe environment.
“In just five weeks, we doubled our online capacity to help support our most vulnerable customers and transformed our stores with extensive social distancing measures so that everyone who was able to shop in-store could do so safely.
“The costs of doing this have been significant and only partly offset by business rates relief and increased volume. We see the balance as an investment in supporting our customers at a time when they need it most.”
