Tesco blames snow for poor Christmas sales

Tesco has blamed the severe winter weather for its modest pre-Christmas sales growth, arguing that the snow forced shoppers to buy many non-food items on the high street rather than in its out-of-town stores.
 
Its decision to highlight the adverse weather conditions is in stark contrast to the position taken by rival Sainsbury's, which enjoyed buoyant growth over the holiday period and saw like-for-like sales rise 3.6 per cent.
 
In a Christmas trading update this morning, Tescos said like-for-like sales had grown 0.6 per cent from last year, far below the 1.7 per cent average forecast of analysts polled by Reuters.
 
Laurie McIlwee, finance director, said UK like-for-like sales of non-food items had declined by 1.5 per cent during the period, in spite of strong sales of toys, books and games. Food sales were up 1.7 per cent.
 
Chief executive Sir Terry Leahy said."Our performance remains solid but was hindered in the run-up to the important Christmas trading period in the UK by the disruptive effects of the severe winter weather conditions,"
 
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