London - Britain's biggest supermarket Tesco showed a tentative recovery in its key home market was starting to move onto a stronger footing, with the sales decline in its first quarter coming in ahead of forecasts.
A trading update on Friday, published ahead of a potentially stormy annual shareholders' meeting later in the day, said sales at British stores open over a year fell 1.3 percent over the 13 weeks to May 30, the first quarter of its 2015-16 fiscal year.
That compares with analysts' forecasts of a fall of 1.6 to 3 percent and is an improvement on the 1.7 percent decline recorded in the fourth quarter of 2014-15.
“Whilst the market is still challenging and volatility is likely to remain a feature of short-term performance, these first quarter results represent another step in the right direction,” Chief Executive Dave Lewis said.
Reuters