British supermarket giant Tesco has posted pre-tax losses of around £6.4bn for the year ending February, which is the company’s lowest annual profit recorded in its history.
Around £4.7bn of the losses were due to decline in property value of its UK stores, 43 of which were closed earlier this month.
The trading profit has witnessed slump due to tough trading conditions overseas, especially in Korea and an overall disappointing performance in Europe.
Tesco CEO Dave Lewis said: "It has been a very difficult year for Tesco. The results we have published today reflect a deterioration in the market and, more significantly, an erosion of our competitiveness over recent years. We have faced into this reality, sought to draw a line under the past and begun to rebuild, and already we are beginning to see early encouraging signs from what we’ve done so far.
"Over the last six months we have put customers back at the centre of everything we do. By focusing on the fundamentals of availability, service and targeted price reductions, we have seen a steady increase in footfall, transactions and, most significantly, volumes. More customers are buying more things at Tesco."
On like-for-like basis, the UK sales have increased for the first time in over four years. This growth was driven by better availability, service and pricing.
Tesco has shelved its plans to build out 49 stores.
