He praised the farm brands, which replaced its Everyday Value basics range and carry fictitious names such as Rosedene and Boswell, despite the charge they may mislead customers.
Their contribution meant Tesco outperformed the market on fresh produce and meat by 5% and Lewis pointed out that overall sales grew, despite the products making typical shopping baskets 17%, or £1.60, cheaper than before. Two-thirds of customers have bought farm brand items so far.
They are partly responsible for Tesco’s recent resurgence against both traditional competitors such as Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons, and discounters Aldi and Lidl.
Lewis said: “Eighteen months ago we were losing customers to everyone in the market, now we are at the stage where we are attracting customers from across the market.”
Bruno Monteyne of Bernstein Research said it was another good set of results and that “despite all the fears of Asda, Amazon and Aldi, Tesco’s recovery remains on track”.
