Tesco UK’s non-food profits up 2.5%

Tesco’s non-food sales for H1 2010 have increased 2.5 per cent year-on-year in the UK.

The supermarket giant made 4.4bn in non-food for the 26 weeks ending August 28th, 2010.

The firm says the growth in non-food is slowing because the ‘important’ electrical and entertainment categories struggled during the second quarter.

Tesco’s overall group sales are 15 per cent up, with net profit at 1.18 billion compared to the 1.03 billion made during H1 2009.

The gains were led by a 30 per cent increase in profit in Asia, while in Britain the increase was just 5.5 per cent.

Tesco’s US arm – Fresh & East – saw sales increase 10 per cent but still posted a loss of 95 million.

"The global economic headwinds of the last two years are being replaced by the tailwinds of recovery in most of our markets and this is helping our International businesses to resume strong sales and profit momentum," said CEO Terry Leahy.