Tesco Ireland has announced that it has delivered a ‘strong performance’ in its third quarter, according to its Christmas trading statement 2025/26.

Food sales increased by 5.2% year-on-year with particularly strong growth in fresh food, the retailer noted.

Commenting on the results, Geoff Byrne, CEO Tesco Ireland, said: “Our strong Quarter 3 performance, which includes a very successful Christmas trading period, reflects the ongoing positive momentum across our business along with our customer first focus.

“We saw particularly strong growth in our fresh food category during the quarter, with quality and innovation recognised through a record 84 Blas na hÉireann awards, including 26 gold medals,” he added.

“We’ve continued to invest in our store network, opening five new stores in recent weeks including two large stores in Howth and Drogheda, creating 220 new jobs, and bringing Tesco to even more customers across Ireland.

“Our rapid delivery service, Whoosh, is also growing strongly, now available in Cork and Galway as well as Dublin. Alongside this, our broader online grocery home shopping service continues to see consistent year on year growth.”

UK performance

The retailer’s UK arm boasted it’s ‘highest market share for over a decade’, which it said was ‘driven by investments across the shopping trip.’

In a statement, Ken Murphy, chief executive, said: “Our investments in value, quality and service drove further gains in customer satisfaction and strong growth in fresh food, contributing to our highest UK market share in over a decade.

“In addition to further strengthening our price position, we launched 340 new and improved own-brand Christmas products including 180 in Finest, which once again delivered double-digit sales growth.

“We also recruited 28,500 additional colleagues for the festive period and offered an extra 100,000 online delivery slots in the week before Christmas, enabled by AI-powered scheduling tools developed by our technology and logistics teams.”

‘Intense’ competition

Murphy highlighted that online sales grew double-digit and Whoosh also performed strongly, with more than 250,000 new customers over the period.

“Competition is as intense as ever and we know value remains a priority for customers,” he said.

“We are determined to help customers make their money go further, and earlier this week expanded our Everyday Low Prices commitment to over 3,000 branded products, sitting alongside Aldi Price Match on more than 650 lines and thousands of exclusive offers through Clubcard Prices.”

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