By most measures, Tesco has been a pandemic success story: in only five weeks last year the company doubled the number of online delivery slots it offered to 1.5 million a week; it hired 49,600 temporary staff in a year to keep up with demand; and, far from requiring government support, it paid back £585 million in business rates relief.
Yet after what it described in its annual results as an “exceptional year,” its share price is 22.5 per cent lower than 12 months ago at 227½p and little-changed from five years ago, when the shares stood at about 236p. They fell 2 per cent, or 4¾p, after yesterday’s results.
Despite the strong performance of its stores in Britain and Ireland over the period when