Tesco, the U.K. grocer, has upgraded its fiscal 2024 guidance for retail earnings following significant cost reductions that resulted in a strong performance in the first half of the year. The company’s preferred metric, retail adjusted operating profit, is now expected to be between £2.6 billion and £2.7 billion ($3.14 billion and $3.26 billion) for fiscal 2024. This is an increase from the previous guidance, which was around the same level as the reported £2.49 billion for the year ended February 25.
Tesco also anticipates Bank adjusted operating profit to be between £130 million and £160 million.
The company has upgraded its free cash flow target for this year to a range of £1.8 billion to £2.0 billion, compared to the previous range of £1.4 billion to £1.8 billion. This upgrade exceeds Tesco’s medium-term guidance range of £1.4 billion to £1.8 billion.
In the six months ended August 26, Tesco achieved a pretax profit of £1.22 billion, a significant increase from £396 million in the same period a year earlier. Additionally, revenue rose to £34.15 billion from £32.52 billion year-on-year.
The board has declared an interim dividend of 3.85 pence per share, matching the dividend distributed in the previous year.