It has become fashionable to suggest that, if the wheels are not yet coming off Tesco’s 15-year growth story, they might be getting wobbly. Tuesday’s profits show the retail juggernaut rolls on. True, same-store sales are growing faster at UK counterparts J Sainsbury, Wm Morrison and Wal-Mart’s Asda. Tesco’s annual earnings growth was the slowest since 1994. But to increase underlying pre-tax profits 10 per cent to £3bn in a brutal retail environment is some feat.

The UK waters have been muddied by Tesco’s discounter brands plan. The several hundred cut-price products introduced in September have taken much of the price inflation out of same-store growth – largely accounting for its underperformance compared with rivals. But, volumes have continued to grow strongly and the initiative has achieved its aim. Industry switching data suggest Tesco has staunched the customer outflow to hard discounters such as Aldi. It is still losing some share to Asda but it is not clear what heavy promotions are doing to Asda’s margins. Tesco increased its UK operating margin by 0.1 points to 6.2 per cent.