Not sure I like the look of this at all.
It has become fashionable to see supermarkets as "winners" in the Covid-19 economy, with many shops closed, and what might be described as "panic buying" evident. Tesco et al have also benefitted from the lack of online/delivery from the Aldi/Lidl combo that have been eating into market share over recent years too.
What this ignores is firstly that costs have increased dramatically as well as Income. Secondly a lot of the "panic buying" will not be repeated, and will have brought forward spend into Q1 from Q2. (Not showing a monthly breakdown to see this affect either of March cannibalising April, April cannibalising May etc., although it is there if you look - see below)
This RNS demonstrates clearly telling what people want to hear, and not what they fear. Now all PR departments do this, and I suspect similar from other Supermarkets too. But consider they break down their results into "Online" (very strong), Convenience (Strong and lots to say), but no category for regular retail supermarkets. I wonder why? Similarly lots of bullet points on revenue growth, and %age increases, but where's the profit commentary. Of course it's only a Trading Statement, not a results release but this smells a little of too much spin to me.
To get to the profit update you have to go to the very final section "Looking Ahead" where you get the admission the increased costs are likely to result in Retail profits about the same as last year. So only a relative, not absolute winner then in the Covid economy, and with shops elsewhere re-opening it will be interesting to see how things progress in the remainder of the year. In addition to this there is notice of negative adjustments, and probable write-offs at Tesco Bank. So it looks like a reversal in profits for this year then. Again, not something that isn't happening to most companies, but not consistent with the "Supermarkets are Winners" narrative.
To be fair to Tesco they do provide an (unusual) insight into the First Quarter if you know where to look for it on their website.
https://www.tescoplc.com/news/2020/firs ... nt-202021/From here scroll down to Trading Update and then click on the "Additional Information Pack". You get the breakdown, this time including info and graphs for "UK Large Stores" (not pretty) etc.
Not one for me.