"In a challenging economic environment, we made good progress internationally but despite record sales, we are disappointed with our seasonal trading performance in the UK.
We will continue the process of change that we started nine months ago to address long-standing business issues, building on the important steps we have already taken in the United States, in Japan and at Tesco Bank, as well as those we have begun to take in the UK. The Big Price Drop is an important first element in this process but there is much more we can do to further improve our shopping trip for customers and we are determined to move faster. We will say more in our Preliminary Results announcement in April.
Our staff and suppliers worked incredibly hard for customers over the period and I would like to thank them for all that they do.
In a challenging consumer environment at home, and with early signs of more cautious behaviour emerging elsewhere, we have seen more strain than anticipated on our profitability during the important seasonal trading period. As a result, while underlying profit before tax and earnings per share for 2011/12 will be broadly in line with market consensus forecasts, we expect Group trading profit growth to be around the low end of the current consensus range.
