"All things considered, this is a miserly set of results from Tesco which come against very easy comparisons last year. In our view the poor figures are driven by a more competitive market, an ineffectual marketing effort and a lack of attention to detail in merchandising and stores. As a competitive and marketing tactic Tesco has chosen to fight its battle on the issue of price. We believe that this was the wrong headline message over Christmas. As results from Waitrose and Sainsbury's have shown, this festive season was not about austerity; consumers were willing to trade up and sought quality and value rather than just low prices. There is no denying that Tesco is a phenomenal business and these results do nothing to take away from that. However, Tesco is now in a much tougher phase of its development where it will need to work much, much harder if it is to extend its market share" – Neil Saunders, MD of retail analysts Conlumino.