It has been a year of celebration for Tesco. The supermarket returned to profit, pulled out of the pit it dug itself leading up to the 2014 accounting scandal.
“Last year we made a simple commitment,” Tesco said. “We set out to get back to what Tesco has always done best: being the champion for customers; putting customers first; and taking small actions to make big differences.”
The 52 weeks to 27 February 2016 saw Tesco return to profit after a year and a half. Group statutory operating profit reached £1,046m, compared to a loss of £5,750m the previous year, which was the lowest in the red Tesco had ever been. Revenue fell 1.3% compared to last year, reaching £54,433m, though Tesco managed to decrease its net debt by 39.7% to £5.1bn.
Such a turnaround puts CEO Dave Lewis in an exceptional light. ‘Drastic Dave‘ received a bonus of £3m this year, 250% of his salary.
“This has been a significant year for Tesco”, Lewis said. “We have delivered unprecedented change over the past 12 months as we have begun to transform our business.
“As a result, we have stabilised the business and we are on track with where we expected to be. Of course there is still more to do – but we are on the road to recovery and momentum is building across the business.”
