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Updated at 2.01pm
NEARLY 15 YEARS of share gains from supermarket giant Tesco have been wiped out after the UK chain again slashed its profit forecasts.
The once-dominant retailer today announced it expected to make less than half what it took in last year.
Tesco told investors it predicted its trading profit for the full year to February would “not exceed £1.4 billion (€1.8 billion)” as it tried sinking more money into staff and stores.
The company’s share price hit a new low of £1.55 this morning after the announcement before bouncing back nearly 10%.
It has shed about two-thirds of its value since April 2010 and today’s bottom represents Tesco’s lowest share price since it plumbed similar depths in 2000.
Investors would have to look back even further – to 1997 – for a time when the Tesco share price consistently traded for less.
Last year the chain’s trading profit landed at £3.3 billion (€4.19 billion) – a figure which was already below what it took in for the same period in 2012/13.
Its forecast for this year has also been slashed since an estimate in late August when the company said it was expecting to make up to £2.5 billion (€3.18 billion).
Today, Tesco said it had “taken actions to invest in and improve (its) company offer” and it had hired more than 6,000 new staff, increased products and cut prices to win back customers.
“The early feedback from customers is encouraging,” its statement said.
Tesco under pressure
The supermarket chain has been coming under pressure as the market leader in Ireland over recent months, while in the UK, where it makes the bulk of its profits, its share of the grocery business has also been plunging.
Its existing business shrank 6.4% for the first half of 2014 in Ireland, the company’s worst-performed territory for the period.
Chief executive Dave Lewis said the company was trying to create “sustainable value” which had an impact on its short-term profits.
Our priorities remain restoring competitiveness in the UK, protecting and strengthening the balance sheet and rebuilding trust and transparency,” he said.
The company’s reputation took a big hit after it emerged in September that it had overstated its profits to the tune of £250 million – later revised up to £263 million.
The UK’s Serious Fraud Office has since launched a criminal investigation into the accounting debacle, while its chairman Sir Richard Broadbent announced he planned to stand down after the company’s latest plans were put in place.
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Makes sense to run the extra 4k, can’t see any reason not too, would be fantastic for the area
@Looney Tunes: yes it will help them all get to work….
@Looney Tunes: great to have the Park and Ride built along with it.
@Canyon: yes it would be great…i live in Finglas and have worked every day of my adult life.
@Smokeycarroll: He seems to be on Journal.ie a lot today. Probably scrounging off the state.
@Canyon: really? Are you suggesting all people from Finglas don’t work ?
@Fr. Fintan Stack: love it collecting 2 scratchers
@Robert: never said any such thing.
@Fr. Fintan Stack: nope .. have worked since I was 16..now middle aged… Day off today..shift work.
@Canyon: are you trying to imply that people in Finglas don’t work?
@EillieEs: no
@Looney Tunes: 2 areas in Finglas has an unemployment rate of 30% before covid. For those that ask for source. Google unemployment balckspots Ireland. The journal did a piece on it too.
@Caoimhín: yes so that means in those two areas that 70% DO work so your generalisation and stereotyping is only upsetting those people..
@Caoimhín: unemployed people have the right to travel aswell
@Lisa Jones: Lisa. I never generalised. I pointed out the unemployment rate to show that its not as bad as some commenter made out.
At this stage can they not just extend it to the airport? It’s madness that Ireland doesn’t have a rail link to its biggest airport
@C M: It simply wouldn’t be good enough. The metro AND extending the IE network into the airport terminal is the only realistic solution. But you are right, it is now 50 years since the first underground rail link to the airport was announced and nothing even decided yet.
@BeyondRoom313: Move the port out of Dublin. Use the port tunnel for rail connection to the airport (with underground work’s at Stephen’s Green, Pearse station and final section between end of port tunnel and airport). Container shipping does not need to come through Dublin City when there are other alternatives.
@Daniel Kelly: Not going to happen – Dublin Port is just about to embark on its biggest expansion ever. The containers go through the Port Tunnel and not the streets.
@BeyondRoom313: If Finland can do this with great success why can’t Ireland?
@Daniel Kelly: Because Ireland is an island and can’t afford to do what Helsinki did. They have a rail system that connects into Russia and China on one side and Sweden on the other. The Helsinki port is tiny compared to Dublin as they don’t need it like we do.
@Daniel Kelly: Great idea. Need to also find another way of moving goods around the country, trains, canals ,etc.
Good to see the luas tram following the rules with his mask on
Why cant we just charge the same rate as the luas on the commuter train lines? Make it affordable for people to commute from Drodegda or Balbriggan or Gorey or Arklow. That would do a lot to solving the housing crisis, those journeys are roughly the same as the luas from Tallaght to town.
@Niall Dunne: That is way too sensible.
Needs a 24 hour guard
Needs to hang a right behind Charlestown and down to ikea onto ballymun and airport.
Anything less would be unforgiveable and a total political failure and a totally unacceptable. If its done at the same time as the finglas extension, the cost would be minimal and the destruction to traffic is done at the one time.
Needs to happen
@mac: Agreed, but as Metro North should have been operational by now and isn’t, I’d take the additional 4 stops on the alias to Charlestown and when it’s shown to be safe and good for business, then extended as you suggested.
@Lynne: you’d be adding 8 to 10yrs on an extension if it’s left. 2028 is laughable anyway.. Fast track planning required
It’s fantastic that they’re extending the line further to Finglas but having lived opposite the Broombridge stop after the green line just opened I do hope they learn from their mistakes. A massive increase in cars around the area with very little parking made it a nightmare for months, less safe for local kids playing etc. All in all a positive development for the city
Yet the navan rail line still a long way down the list of priorities and the permanent way still there and a station in navan and further room to expand a park and ride on the northern side of the town
A link out to the huge population in D15 would also be beneficial. Also like France free fare for under 18s?
@Starburst: wouldn’t hold my breath for free under 18′s, after all somebody will have to pay for the huge cost overruns that will inevitably be incurred due to long delays and general incompetence.
Another 10 years before this poxy line gets built, in the meantime the national and regional rail networks could actually make a better contribution to economic activity if invested in properly, but let’s not take the focus away from shiny pet projects in the capital now.
@Simey Joyce: eh, the two Luas lines carry almost as many passengers as the entire Irish Rail network put together. ‘Poxy’ Luas is regarded as possibly the best performing tram network in the world for attracting ridership.
@BeyondRoom313: it’s a bog standard tram… you will see the exact same Bombardiar model used extensively in cities even smaller than Dublin throughout mainland Europe. Those same places prioritise interconnections with the surrounding regions and other major population centres. But as long as old Nora from Finglas can pop into Moore Street for the day then sure happy days.
When we are at it take it out to Dublin Airport there is no need to spend 5 or 6 billion on a metro. All we have to do is look at both Edinburgh and Manchester light rail service they have taken it to their airports
@Paul Maguire: If only the metro wasn’t just for the airport. Oh yeah. Thats the plan.
They will b a sister to the Red line out to parts of Tallaght and all the problems that entails . Parts of Finglas dog rough
Ridiculous to extend existing lines when they are over capacity and move at a snails pace.
Beep beep, we’ve got 2 light rail systems! Lol! Get it done for gawd sake and then do it another 20 times all over the freakkin’ county, properly useless.
That luas is wearing a mask!!!!
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