The world's third-largest supermarket chain was heavily fined two weeks ago for false accounting. Presenting its full-year figures, Tesco claimed its plan to turn things around is already well ahead of schedule.
Tesco, the biggest retailer in the United Kingdom, was handed 241 million pounds in penalties last month for the company's former accounting practice.
The aftermath has clearly bumped the company, but operating profits rose by a third to 1.28 billion pounds for 2016/17. Sales grew for the first time in seven years by 3.5 pe cent to 55.9 billion pounds, while Tesco's operating profits were up almost 30 percent.
Fierce competition
Tesco has faced tough competition in recent years from German-owned Aldi and Lidl, Sainbury's, Morrisons and Wal-Mart or Asda.
Berlin's first package-free supermarket
Milena sells nude food - what on earth is that?
Image: DW/A.-S. Bändlin
Wrapped in plastic? No, thanks.
"Original Unverpackt" is a small supermarket that looks more like a kiosk, and yet it offers 500 different products - from nuts to noodles - all package-free. Customers can fill as much of each product as they want into small linen bags, Tupperware they bring from home, or glass jars from Milena’s shop. As long as it's reusable.
Image: Original Unverpackt/J. Schröder
Bulk shopping
At Milena's shop, nothing is pre-packaged, so customers can decide how much of each product they want to buy. Nuts, for example, are billed according to weight, so to double-check how much your pecans or walnuts are, you can throw them onto this retro-looking scale. Plus, shuffling nuts into bags brought from home is actually way more fun than just tossing a pre-packaged bag of nuts into a cart.
Image: DW/A.-S. Bändlin
Bring your own packaging
Apart from nuts, you can also buy package-free noodles, like lasagna or spaghetti. But when customers get to the spaghetti section, many are a bit helpless. "They wonder: where could we possibly put that," Milena says. Spaghetti won't fit in most Tupperware containers. Milena has a simple but ingenious answer: "Old Pringles tubes," she says and smiles.
Image: DW/A. S. Brändlin
Supporting local organic agriculture
Milena's concept isn't just reducing plastic waste, but also offering regional and organic produce. So all of these fruits and veggies come from local farmers. "That way, we have a shorter supply chain," says Milena, "which means we're producing less carbon dioxide when getting the products into our shop."
Image: DW/A.-S. Bändlin
Organic apples - and condoms
Milena's shop doesn't just offer package-free food, like these yummy-looking fruits, but also toiletries - from organic detergents to natural cosmetics. There's even a section with sustainable, fair-trade, vegan condoms.
Image: DW/A.-S. Bändlin
Recycled furniture
Milena's shop is located in Berlin's vibrant, trendy Kreuzberg district and has a base of loyal customers who love to hang out after shopping. Even the chairs outside of Milena's shop are made out of recycled cardboard.
Image: DW/A.-S. Bändlin
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"We are confident that we can build on this strong performance in the year ahead," said the Chief Executive Dave Lewis in a statement.
"On top of this, our proposed merger with Booker will bring together two complementary businesses, driving additional value for shareholders by realizing substantial synergies and enabling us to access the faster growing 'out of home' food market."
After a vast property writedown in 2014, Tesco lost around 5.7 billion pounds in investments. Several Tesco executives are expected to stand trial over false reporting of accounts.