Tesco dusts off its expansion plans
Tesco says it is to restart work on development projects it had previously put on hold. The supermarket giant today reported full-year pre-tax profits up 10% to £3.2bn and said it would spend £1.6bn on capital investment during the next 12 months.
Tesco said in a statement with its results that it had developed “over a number of years a good pipeline of new space opportunities. As a result we have the opportunity to unwind some of the work-in-progress we have built up and will be stepping up the rate of expansion in 2010/11.”
“We will be investing £1.6 billion of capital in the UK economy this year and will create thousands of jobs including for the long-term unemployed through our regeneration partnerships,” the group added.
Meanwhile a group of three shopping centres in London has been put up for sale, reports The Daily Telegraph. Northern Ireland-based William Ewart Properties is marketing the Victoria Place, Fulham Broadway and Hammersmith Broadway retail centres for £295m, the paper reports, although they could be sold individually.
The paper says demand for shopping centres in London is high, as consumer spending is considered to be more stable in the capital than elsewhere in the UK.
