LONDON (AP) – Tesco, Britain’s biggest retailer, posted a record full-year loss of 5.7 billion pounds ($8.5 billion) Wednesday as deteriorating market conditions forced it to write down the value of supermarkets and other assets.
The loss marks another unfortunate milestone for Tesco, which has been dogged by an accounting scandal and a series of profit warnings that led to the departure of previous CEO Philip Clarke. It also shows the impact of a brutal supermarket price war, as discount supermarket chains eat into the market share of a company that once dominated the market.
The company said Wednesday it took 7 billion pounds of one-time charges in the 12 months through February, including 4.7 billion pounds for the reduced value of fixed assets. The net loss compares with net income of 974 million pounds in the previous year.
The results “reflect a deterioration in the market and, more significantly, an erosion of our competitiveness over recent years,” Chief Executive Officer Dave Lewis said in a statement. “We have faced into this reality, sought to draw a line under the past and begun to rebuild.”
Revenue for the period fell 2 percent to 62.3 billion pounds.