LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - First-quarter sales Tesco surged 8.8% as the supermarket giant held annual guidance and said there were "encouraging" signs that inflation was starting to ease for struggling customers.
The company on Friday said sales in the 13 weeks to April 27 came in at £13.8bn on a like for like basis. Revenue in the UK was up 9% to £10.8bn.

Shoppers are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis which has seen soaring inflation erode wages. Consumers have also started expressing anger at large company profits - calling it "greedflation", while the Bank of England has accused supermarkets of contributing to an inflation rate of just under 10%.

A recent survey by Barclays also found that consumers feel they were victims of food industry "shrinkflation" as they started to prioritise value for money in their weekly shop.

Food have surged almost 20% in the past year, and the most recent survey of consumer activity from Barclays revealed that shoppers were concentrating spending on essentials and increasingly concerned that manufacturers were reducing the size of products such as chocolate bars and packets of crisps.

Two-thirds of shoppers had noticed products shrinking in size while the price had remained the same or even increased. In response, 20% of consumers said they were switching from products that had been downsized by manufacturers to instead buy in bulk.

Tesco chief executive Ken Murphy went on the defensive on Friday, calling the Bank of England's accusation "unfair".

"There are encouraging early signs that inflation is starting to ease across the market and we will keep working tirelessly to ensure customers receive the best possible value at Tesco," he said.

Tesco earlier this year said it expected flat retail adjusted operating profit in 2023/24 and retail free cash flow in range of £1.4bn to £1.8bn. It made £2.49bn last year.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com

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