Tesco announces £6.4 billion loss

UK supermarket chain Tesco has reported a worse than expected £6.38 billion year-end loss. The loss was caused in the main part by a £4.7 billion write down on the value of its property, along with restructuring and stock charges, and costs relating to last year’s accounting scandal.

The group’s trading profit was down 58 per cent to £1.4 billion year on year. The group’s chief executive, Dave Lewis, said: “It has been a very difficult year for Tesco. The results we have published today reflect a deterioration in the market and, more significantly, an erosion of our competitiveness over recent years.”

Tesco, like other supermarkets, has been struggling over the last few years in the price wars with Lidl and Aldi. Financial pundits believe that today’s announcement is akin to an army making a strategic withdrawal from all its fronts, in order to regroup and set a baseline to continue the war with a fresh campaign.