Tesco’s TVs turned off

TESCO is preparing to slash its range of televisions, laptops and DVDs as more people go online for their electrical goods.

Britain’s biggest supermarket said the items had become less profitable and it was turning its attention to developing new home and cooking ranges.

Sales of general merchandise, which includes home computing, TVs, DVDs, books and music, fell 0.6pc over the festive period. It was also hit by the demise of Palmer & Harvey just before Christmas, as it was one of Tesco’s biggest suppliers of tobacco products.

But the setbacks failed to cast a shadow on festive sales, which rose 1.9pc in the 19 weeks to January 6, lifted by strong food figures, which were up 3.4pc.

Tesco saw its biggest ever sales week in the UK over Christmas, with 58m transactions and 770,000 online grocery deliveries.

Chief executive David Lewis said: ‘Incorporating Palmer & Harvey volumes and complexity was challenging, resulting in lost tobacco sales... and putting further strain into our distribution network. These challenges have now been resolved [but] they took the shine off an otherwise outstanding performance.’