Tesco said it was expecting the next few weeks and months to be tough as its performance over Christmas failed to live up to that of its rivals in what is proving to be one of the poorest festive seasons for retailers in a generation.

Andrew Higginson, chief executive of retailing services and outgoing finance director, said January and February – the last two months of the retailer’s financial year – were going to be hard going. Tesco delivered underlying sales up just 2.5 per cent in the seven weeks to January 10.