Trading Statement

Tesco PLC
16 January 2007


Tuesday 16 January 2007


                     CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR TRADING STATEMENT
                                        
                         SUCCESSFUL CHRISTMAS FOR TESCO
                                        

Tesco has delivered strong growth and record sales over the Christmas and New
Year period, driven by all four parts of our strategy.

Group sales, excluding petrol, increased by 9.9% in the six weeks to 6 January
2007. Including petrol, Group sales increased by 9.5%.

Strong UK Performance

Like-for-like sales excluding petrol increased by 5.9% in the period, slightly
higher than the rate of growth reported in our third quarter. Including petrol,
UK sales grew by 8.3%, including like-for-like growth of 5.4% and 2.9% from net
new space. Our overall inflation in the UK was 0.1%, driven by a small amount of
inflation in store.

The entire Tesco team worked hard to deliver an even better Christmas for
customers than last year, including a record year in many non-food categories,
including toys & games, electronics and clothing.

Many customers chose from our Tesco Finest and Organic ranges over the period.
Sales of fresh Organic foods were up by 39% and Finest meat and poultry sales
grew by over 55%. Our Extra and Express stores saw strong growth, helping to
make shopping for food, non-food and last-minute essentials as convenient as
possible for our customers at such a busy time of the year.

Tesco.com, including Tesco Direct, had a successful Christmas, with total sales
up by more than 30% to over £150 million with nearly two million orders
delivered in the six weeks. Over 14 million items were delivered by the grocery
team in their busiest Christmas week ever.

Good Progress Overseas

Overall, our overseas businesses traded well over the Christmas and New Year
period, with International sales growing by 15.8%.




For further information:

Investor Relations    Steve Webb              [phone]

Press                 Jonathan Church         [phone]
                      Angus Maitland          [phone]




                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange