Tesco's Half-Year profits Top £1bn

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 10-3-2006

[blam]

Tesco's half-year profits top £1bn

(Filed: 03/10/2006)

The £1 billion profit accumulated by Tesco over just six months has drawn renewed attacks on the impact the supermarket chain is having on the environment and town centres.

Britons spent an average £289 in Tesco stores

Tesco said today it took £17 billion from British shoppers in the first half of its financial year, or £289 for every Briton. Profits were bolstered by the group's expansion from food products to electrical goods, insurance and even computer software.

But campaigners said Tesco's success is coming at an unacceptable cost.

"Tesco's booming profits are rooted in rock-bottom prices to farmers and a wholesale takeover of the high street," said Vicki Hird, a Friends of the Earth campaigner. "Ministers and competition authorities must put the brakes on the Tesco juggernaut and take action to protect our small shops, farmers and the environment."

The Competition Commission is investigating the dominance of supermarkets and has been inundated with submissions to its inquiry.

High street stores, both big and small, are already feeling the heat as shoppers look to Tesco to fulfill more and more of their needs

Keith Bowman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers, said: "It's not just rival supermarkets which will be looking on with envy - the majority of general retailers will again be casting a worried eye."

Tesco has 1,898 stores in the UK with 25.9 million square feet of sales area and employs 339,000 staff around the world.

[mylife]

So Tesco's is the limey Walmart?

[blam]

"So Tesco's is the limey Walmart?"

Looks like it. Profit is bad?

[mylife]

Profit is bad?

Nope. And no one will ever convince me that walmart displaces mom and pop shops or ruins the environment. Wally word is great for prepackaged consumables but falls short in many areas. Im willing to pay a bit more for a good bakery, good produce and meat. Seems to me that a fellow who opened a Good fish and chips shop next to the tesco's would rake in all the hungry tescos customers.