Tesco’s UK sales growth more than halves amid Iran war uncertainty

Tesco’s UK sales growth has more than halved as it said the conflict in the Middle East had created “ongoing uncertainty for many households”. The UK’s biggest retailer said comparable sales rose 1.8% to £13.4bn in the three months to the end of May, below both the 4.2% reported in the previous quarter and the 2.3% growth City analysts had expected. The numbers were, however, lifted by an 8.9% rise in online sales and group sales rose 1% to £16.8bn. The slowdown in UK sales growth reflected dampened consumer confidence in the face of higher fuel prices linked to the conflict in the Middle East. Exceptionally warm and sunny weather during the same period last year helped to increase sales of food and drink, distorting comparisons with this year. Tesco said it had extended its pledge to match the German discounter Aldi on leading product lines to more than 2,000 of its small Express stores and launched 520 new products and said it was “well placed to build on our progress to date”. Ken Murphy, the Tesco chief executive, said: “I am pleased with our progress in the first quarter, with customer satisfaction up strongly and continued sales growth building on the exceptional performance we delivered last year. …