April 26, 2006

Tesco: UK poultry sales hurt slightly by bird flu

Tesco's Chief Executive Terry Leahy said Tuesday (Apr 25) that the bird flu has had a slight negative impact on the retailer's poultry sales in the UK.

"There's probably been a slight impact but not significantly," Leahy told reporters at its annual earnings briefing.

During the week before Easter, poultry sales were down 5 percent in Scotland, he said. But noted that it was hard to gauge what exactly was behind the fall, with the timing of Easter and school holidays falling into a different period from a year ago.

However, Tesco has seen a higher fall in poultry sales in eastern Europe and South Korea, Leahy said.

He did not provide any specific figures.

Tesco is the UK's biggest retailer with extensive domestic and international operations. It operates 2,365 stores in the UK, Ireland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Turkey, China, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.