Tesco met forecasts with a 4.1 per cent rise in underlying third-quarter UK sales today and said its new US stores had been "very well received" by customers.
The supermarket group, which runs over 3,200 stores across the world and opened its first shop in the United States last month, said total group sales rose 11.8 per cent in the 13 weeks to November 24th.
Tesco is the world's third-biggest retailer behind US group Wal-Mart and France's Carrefour. But it makes about 80 per cent of sales and profits from its 2,000 shops in Britain, where it takes about one in every eight pounds spent by shoppers and one in three spent in supermarkets.
Figures for its Irish operations have not yet been released.