Tesco has raised the floor of its full-year profit guidance after half-year sales rose 2 per cent to £33.8 billion, but its Booker wholesale arm, which supplies symbol groups such as Premier, Londis and Budgens, saw like-for-like sales fall 2.6 per cent. The grocer also lifted its share buyback to £950 million.
The figures cover the 26 weeks to 29 August 2026 and were published on 9 October 2026. Adjusted operating profit rose 6.5% to £1.78 billion. Tesco now expects full-year adjusted operating profit of £3.15 billion to £3.3 billion, against a previous range whose lower end was £3 billion.
Like-for-like sales and the Booker drag
UK like-for-like sales rose 1.5% in the half, with food up 2.4%. Tesco’s online sales grew by about 8%, and its Whoosh quick-commerce service is on course for more than £500 million of sales over the full year after growing 37 per cent. Booker, the wholesale business that supplies independent convenience retailers and catering customers, went the other way.
Ken Murphy, chief executive of Tesco, said: “Our digital channels are important growth drivers for Tesco.” He also pointed to a new F&F clothing website and the retailer’s Christmas ranges.
Where the franchise and symbol group models sit
Tesco’s business spans several models. The Tesco fascia is not franchised, but the group owns One Stop, which offers a franchise to independent retailers, and it owns Booker’s symbol groups. In a symbol group such as Premier, the retailer keeps the shop and signs a supply agreement. The Booker like-for-like figure therefore describes wholesale sales to those retailers and other customers, not the trading of franchised shops.
Good to know: franchise or symbol group?
One Stop is the Tesco-owned convenience brand that markets a franchise model to independent retailers, alongside the other food and drink brands recruiting UK operators. Premier, Londis and Budgens are Booker symbol groups, where retailers buy supplies and use a fascia without a franchise agreement. The half-year announcement does not break out One Stop or franchise trading.
What the half-year does not say
The Retail Gazette coverage does not give a separate figure for One Stop, for franchise shops or for convenience as a whole, and it does not explain what the headline means by a drier Christmas peak. Tesco’s customer satisfaction score is reported as its highest on record, according to Murphy. Full details of the group’s convenience performance sit in the company’s own half-year results statement, which this article does not reproduce.
For retailers who buy through Booker, the group-level figures describe Tesco’s overall trading and not the margins of any individual symbol group shop, a gap that applies equally when assessing any brand taking on operators in the UK. The next scheduled Tesco trading statement is not given in the sources reviewed.
