Tesco issued a trading update on Friday and frustratingly, it included only 11 words about non-foods and fashion, despite clothing being a key driver during the period covered.

For the 13 weeks to 25 May (the retailer’s first quarter), it talked of “non-food sales up +0.7%, driven by strong growth in clothing”.

We don’t know exactly how much its clothing — mainly its F&F offer — grew, but it’s significant that the supermarkets giant saw fashion growth at a time when its big rival Sainsbury’s has struggled with such growth and has taken space from fashion and home to give more store space to foods.

That said, Tesco’s statement clearly shows that supermarket fashion remains a key channel in the UK. And Asda confirmed that just a few weeks ago when the supermarkets business said it continued to grow its total revenues, like-for-like sales and margins in Q1, with the improvements helped by a “particularly strong contribution” from its George at Asda fashion and lifestyle brand. 

Back with Tesco, in April when it released its preliminary annual results, it said that clothing growth beat the wider market and womenswear was particularly strong.

Its annual clothing sales “grew faster than the broader store-based clothing market, with womenswear a particular highlight, growing 3.7%”.  

That came after the firm had made some “strategic ranging decisions, including exiting low-returning categories” and the good performance appears to have continued into the new financial year.

Overall in Q1, the company’s retail sales rose 3.4% with the UK up 4.6%, Ireland up 4.4%, its Booker foods ops down 1.3% and Central Europe up 0.6%.