Limited disruption to Irish supplies – Tesco CEO
TESCO, Britain’s biggest retailer, has experienced some disruption to supplies, particularly to the island of Ireland, since the post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union kicked in on January 1, its boss said yesterday.
“We have seen some limited disruption into the Republic of Ireland and into the north of Ireland, but we’re working very closely with government on both sides of the Irish Sea to smooth the flow of product,” Ken Murphy told reporters after Tesco updated on Christmas trading.
He said Tesco’s product availability in both markets “remains strong”.
The disruption was limited to certain categories such as short shelf-life ready-meals, he said.
The CEO said he was confident Tesco would have right measures in place to supply Northern Ireland after the end of a three-month grace period on certain rules and regulations with the EU on March 31.
Mr Murphy also said there had also been “teething problems” with supply flows from continental Europe to the UK.
“Inevitably there are bedding-in issues, teething issues, that you would expect with any new process that’s been set up at relatively short notice,” he said.
“We’re working our way through those and we would hope over the coming weeks and months that we will end up with a much smoother flow of product.”
The group followed rivals in reporting buoyant Christmas trading yesterday, as pandemic restrictions meant people splashed out on celebrations at home.
The group said UK like-forlike sales growth was 6.7pc in its third quarter to November 28, accelerating to 8.1pc in the six weeks to January 9.
“We delivered a record Christmas across all of our formats and channels,” said Mr Murphy.
UK Industry data last week showed the supermarket sector benefited a £11.7bn (€13.2bn) grocery spend in December.
Tesco estimated additional Covid-19 costs would be £810m in its 2020-21 year, up from £725m pounds forecast in October.
But it still maintained its guidance for 2020-21 retail operating profit before exceptional items of “at least” the same level as 2019-20’s, excluding the repayment of £535m of business rates relief.