Tesco has recorded a 17% increase in underlying profit to £2.25bn in its full-year results.

In full-year results to February 25, the retail giant said that its group pre-tax profit increased 16.7% to £2.21bn, on group sales up 13.2% to £41.8bn.

In the UK, like-for-like sales increased 7.5%, with sales up 10.7% to £32.7bn. UK non-food sales increased 13% to £6.8bn.

For the fourth-quarter, it recorded like-for-like sales of 4.9%, excluding petrol and a 9.4% increase in total sales.

In its international operations, sales increased 23% to £9.2bn.

Tesco added that it was aiming to maintain its rate of growth in its UK selling area from a combination of extensions, principally for non-food, and new stores.

It expects to open 130 new Tesco Express stores this year and 392 new stores internationally.

The retailer also confirmed that it would invest £100m in research into environmentally-friendly ways to power its stores and that it would release up to £5bn from its property portfolio over the next five years.

Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive of Tesco, said: “These results represent good progress across the group in a more challenging year.”

He added: “By investing to improve the shopping experience for customers in our businesses across the world, we have been able to deliver another strong sales performance, manage the impact of higher oil-related and other external costs and improve return for shareholders.”

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