Tesco share price: Grocer launches range of plant-based foods

Tesco (LON:TSCO) has moved to launch a new own-brand range of plant-based foods as it looks to take advantage of what it referred to as the ‘UK’s biggest food trend’. The move comes amid intense competition in the UK grocery market which has seen German discounters Aldi and Lidl pressure the country’s ‘Big Four’ supermarkets.

Tesco’s share price has been subdued in London this Tuesday, having given up 0.32 percent to 239.63p as of 15:06 BST. The stock is marginally outperforming the broader UK market, with the benchmark FTSE 100 index currently standing 0.56 percent higher at 7,285.23 points. The grocer’s shares have added about 0.3 percent to their value over the past year, as compared with about a 2.2-percent fall in the Footsie.

Tesco launches plant-based foods

Tesco announced in a statement yesterday that it was launching a new range of plant-based foods. The new line, called Tesco Plant Chef, includes easy to prepare plant-based swaps of traditional dishes. The FTSE 100 grocer further said that it will for the first time have dedicated plant-based and vegetarian zones in stores. Some of the plant-based foods will also sit in Tesco’s meat aisle.

Today’s update comes after the latest data from Kantar Worldpanel which recently showed a fall in Tesco’s sales over the past 12 weeks. The supermarket, however, benefitted from its own value lines like whose sales totalled over a third of a billion pounds.

Analysts on FTSE 100 supermarket

The 15 analysts offering 12-month targets for the Tesco share price for the Financial Times have a median target of 280.00p, with a high estimate of 315.00p and a low estimate of 220.00p. As of September 20, the consensus forecast amongst 22 polled investment analysts covering the blue-chip supermarket has it that the company will outperform the market.