Tesco released an impressive preliminary statement this week, showing a 13.3 per cent jump in pre-tax profits to £1.6 billion in the year to February 22.

The chain's business planning manager for produce, Hamish Renton, told the Journal that the chain is taking customers away from Sainsbury's and Safeway, as the market polarises into a battle between the 'price players and the niche players'.

'Asda is also performing well, based on our analysis of the retail market,' said Renton. 'Our forecast of the future shaping of the marketplace is being borne out and we are obviously delighted to be attracting new customers.' He also revealed that the performance of the chain's fresh produce department in the UK has been 'excellent' in the last 12 months and that it now has a 30.3 per cent value share of the fresh produce -– excluding horti -– retail market.

'You have to bear in mind the context of these results,' said Renton. 'Only last week, Sainsbury's reported a 1.5 per cent reduction in like-for-like sales, while we have registered significant increase in the same timeframe.

'In produce we are outgrowing the market, with key areas in the last year being berries and currants, brassicas, roots, peppers, salad and citrus. We have sold so much volume that in some cases the rest of the market has been starved of supplies. We believe that some of our competitors have been forced into using alternative sources that are not as good, which is obviously good news for us.

'Knowing what we already have locked and loaded in for this year, combined with our stated commitment to upgrade our stores and reinvigorate our offer, we have another terrific 12 months in prospect.' Group sales were up 11.5 per cent in the same 52-week period, to £28.6bn and in the UK alone, sales rose 7.9 per cent to £23.4bn.

International sales are also on the up, reaching £5.2bn after a hike of 31.2 per cent year-on-year. And the progress being made overseas is probably best signalled by a 78.2 per cent increase in underlying operating profits to £212m.

Tesco now has 45 per cent of its group space in international markets and 75,000 of its total of 296,000 employees are based overseas. On the announcement of its results, Tesco pledged to create a further 11,000 jobs in the UK this year and 20,000 on a global scale.

One departure though, was fresh produce category manager Rodney Ward, who will be replaced by Sean McCurley.

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