Tesco is the UK’s leading supermarket with over 14 million customers each week. Telecoms will be the third retail service offered by Tesco; tesco.com is already the largest on-line grocer in the world and Tesco Personal Finance has signed up nearly four million customers in just five years. Tesco operates four distinct formats, from convenience stores to hypermarkets, and has 296,000 employees worldwide, with 220,000 in the UK. Tesco’s core purpose is to create value for customers to earn their lifetime loyalty. Tesco operates in ten countries and is the market leader in six.

Tesco est le 1er groupe de distribution anglais 
- distribution au Royaume-Uni : 780 points de vente (enseignes Extras, Superstores, Compact Stores, Metro stores et Express stores). Le groupe est présent dans la distribution alimentaire et dans le non-alimentaire (textile, pharmacie, informatique, optique, TV Hi-Fi Vidéo, électroménager, voyages, etc.). En 2002, Tesco a acquis T&S et compte 1 202 magasins supplémentaires.
- distribution à l'international. Le groupe est présent en Europe avec 230 magasins répartis sur 5 pays  ainsi qu'en Asie avec 79 magasins dont 69 hypermarchés, 8 express, 1 super et 1 " value store " 
- services financiers

RESULTS

On a continuing**              Including 52 weeks        Including 60 weeks 
business basis:                  International             International 
Group sales (inc. VAT)        £41.8bn       13.2%      £43.1bn       16.7% 
Group revenue (exc.           £38.3bn       13.0%      £39.5bn       16.5% 
VAT) 
New underlying profit***      £2,251m       16.9%      £2,277m       18.3% 

Old UK GAAP underlying        £2,307m       13.7%         -            - 
profit**** (LY £2,029m) 
Group profit before tax       £2,210m       16.7%      £2,235m       18.0% 
New underlying diluted         20.06p       14.1%       20.30p       15.5% 
earnings per share 
Diluted earnings per           19.70p       13.9%       19.92p       15.1% 
share 

HIGHLIGHTS (on a 52-week basis)
* 13.2% increase in group sales**
* 16.9% increase in new underlying profit***
* 14.1% increase in new underlying*** diluted earnings per share
* 14.2% increase in full year dividend - in future also to rise in line   with earnings
* Return on capital employed reaches 12.8%. Target of 12.2% exceeded two   years early. New target set
* Up to £5bn cash to be released from property over next five years -   £1.5bn to be used to buy-back shares to offset future earnings per share  dilution from options etc.

* Good progress with all four parts of strategy:
  - International sales up 23.0%; pre-property operating profit up 28.8%
  - Core UK sales up 10.7%; pre-property operating profit up 10.6%
  - UK Non-food sales up 13%
  - Tesco.com sales up 31.9% to almost £1bn; Tesco Personal Financedelivers £139m profit; Telecoms customer numbers exceed 1.5m

* Over 20,000 new jobs to be created worldwide this year
* New £100m capital fund established to invest in environmental technology

Terry Leahy, Chief Executive, comments:
" These results represent good progress across the group in a more challenging year. By investing to improve the shopping experience for customers in our businesses around the world, we have been able to deliver another strong sales performance, manage the impact of higher oil-related and other external costs and improve returns for shareholders."
* In April 2005, Tesco announced that in the 2005/6 financial year it intended to align the year end of its International operations with its UK business.
These results combine 60-weeks trading for International and 52-weeks trading for the UK and Republic of Ireland, for the period ended 25 February 2006.
** These results are presented on a continuing business basis (i.e. excluding Taiwan, which we intend to divest as part of the asset swap deal with Carrefour announced last September).
*** New underlying pre-tax profit is our internal profit measure which excludes IAS 32 and IAS 39 and the non-cash elements of IAS 19, which are replaced by the normal cash contributions.
**** Our pre-IFRS underlying pre-tax profit excluded net profit or loss on disposal of fixed assets, integration costs and goodwill amortisation

RESULTS
Year-end Convergence. We announced in April 2005 that due to the increasing contribution our international businesses make to group results, we had taken a decision to align our international accounting period with the UK's year-end in 2005/6. These results therefore report on the performance of our International business on the basis of a 60-week (14 month) year, including a 36-week second
half to the end of February, compared with the normal 52 weeks to the end of December. The UK and Republic of Ireland's accounting period remains unchanged.
Where appropriate for ease of comparison, international and Group results are also reported on a 52-week basis (based on the normal 12 month calendar year for International).
Group. These results are presented on a continuing business basis (i.e. excluding Taiwan, which we intend to divest as part of the asset swap deal with Carrefour announced last September).

                                    52 weeks                  60 weeks
                              Actual rates   Constant   Actual rates   Constant

Group sales (inc. VAT)       £41,819m  13.2%    11.6%  £43,137m  16.7%    15.0%
Statutory profit before tax   £2,210m  16.7%    15.3%   £2,235m  18.0%    16.5%

Following our transition to IFRS, we have introduced a new underlying profit measure, which excludes the impact of the volatile non-cash elements of IAS 19, IAS 32 and IAS 39 (principally pension costs and the marking to market of financial instruments).

                                 52 weeks                     60 weeks
                          Actual rates     Constant    Actual rates    Constant

New underlying profit   £2,251m    16.9%    15.5%    £2,277m    18.3%    16.8%
before tax

For comparison, using our pre-IFRS underlying profit definition, profit increased by 13.7% to £2,307m on a 52-week basis (last year £2,029m).