Tesco’s corporate giving to good causes in countries where it has stores was £57m in 2008.
The £57m figure does not include almost £6m of the record £6.4m raised by staff and customers for last year’s Charity of the Year, Marie Curie Cancer Care.
Despite the economic downturn, Tesco has matched its previous year’s level of corporate giving of 1.9% of pre-tax profits.
There was a strong contribution from Tesco stores outside the UK market, in line with their strong trading performance.
Speaking in Barcelona at the annual World Retail Congress, Tesco executive director Lucy Neville-Rolfe said: “I am delighted that Tesco’s strong performance enables the business to benefit so many good causes, from providing meals for thousands of school children in South Africa, Kenya and India to supporting hospices and nurses local to our stores. It is right we continue to support charities that may be seeing a fall off in income from other streams as a result of the current economic climate.”
“New research unveiled at today’s conference confirms what Tesco customers tell us in terms of their continued concerns about community and the environment. If anything, our experience with our record-breaking Charity of the Year fundraising proved that concerns about our own communities are stronger than ever.”