Retailer aims to hit £1 billion by next year
Supermarket giant Tesco has unveiled plans to expand its clothing range, in a bid to compete with major high street retailers such as Next, Topshop and Marks & Spencer.

According to reports this morning, the chain will invest hundreds of millions of pounds to broaden its fashion range, offering a clothing catalogue, a new shop-in-shop clothes outlet and online sales.

Terry Green, former head of department store Allders and now chief executive of Tesco's fashion division, announced his intention to lift the company's clothing sales to£1 billion next year. His online fashion launch will be the first in the British supermarket sector.

Tesco is the fastest-growing supermarket clothing retailer, with sales hitting£750 million in the year to February 2006. But clothing still only makes up about 15 per cent of Tesco's total sales.

Green said: 'We have sold 20 per cent more clothing than last year and it is a huge growth area for us.' Tesco has a current market share of 3 per cent, compared with Marks & Spencer's 9 per cent, and he said that he intends to close this gap.

Tesco also plans to roll out 140 quasi-department-store outlets before Christmas, including clothing departments within existing stores.

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