By Michael Susin
Tesco upgraded its fiscal 2024 guidance for the second time after it saw stronger-than-expected volume growth in the U.K. market during Christmas.
The U.K. grocer on Thursday said it expects retail adjusted operating profit–the company’s preferred metric, which strips out exceptional and other one-off items–for fiscal 2024 of around 2.75 billion pounds ($3.50 billion). This compares with previous guidance of range of GBP2.6 billion to GBP2.7 billion.
Bank adjusted operating profit guidance remains unchanged at between GBP130 million and GBP160 million.
Like-for-like retail sales rose 6.4% on year in the 19 weeks ended Jan. 6. They rose 6.6% in the third quarter and 6.0% over the Christmas period.
In the U.K., Tesco’s like-for-like sales rose 7.5% in the 19-week period, while in Central Europe they fell 0.3%.
Write to Michael Susin at michael.susin@wsj.com
