Tesco turnaround is not quite the rise of the Titanic

Outlook

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The toothless lion that roared again? Tesco became the belle of an already cheery grocers’ ball when it produced its first growth in sales in, well, ages.

The big dog’s 1.3 per cent rise in sales excluding new space compares well with the City’s expectations of a 3 per cent fall. It was the icing on a tastier cake than anyone expected from the supermarkets.

While Tesco’s figures look to be the best of the bunch, we should remember that it reported for the six weeks ending 9 January, Morrisons went the nine weeks ending 3 January, and Sainsbury’s gave us an entire quarter (the 15 weeks to 9 January).

Nonetheless, it’s fair to ask if Diamond Dave, sorry David, Lewis hasn’t finally put a bit of sparkle in Tesco’s jewellery box as his spin doctors doled out pics of smiling staff in silly costumes, serving happy shoppers.

With a small army of helpers recruited to help those shoppers, Mr Lewis clearly wants to do away with the grocer’s reputation for supercilious service.

Unfortunately I’m going to have to play party pooper (again). In covering the least number of weeks when compared to rivals, Tesco numbers benefitted most from the pre-Christmas spending spree.

As with Morrisons, the group was also assisted by weak comparatives. It didn’t do as badly as its smaller rival last year, but Tesco still didn’t have to do as much to show improvement as, say, Sainsbury’s.

Again, as with Morrisons, Tesco has still produced some very creditable numbers. It is also in a much better strategic position. But the final similarity with Morrison’s is that we’ve seen false dawns before, including under Mr Lewis. It’s too early to call the turn of the Titanic.