Deal to sell store opticians

Vision Express will continue to run the opticians based in 206 Tesco stores across the UK, including Tesco Extra at North Harbour, and three in Ireland and pledged to retain all of the workforce of around 1,500 staff.

It comes as Tesco continues a turnaround plan led by boss Dave Lewis, which has seen the group offload a range of businesses.

Chief executive Matt Davies said the deal, for an undisclosed sum, ‘allows us to further simplify and strengthen our UK business’.

He added: ‘Our priority now is to work with our colleagues and support them through this change.’

The deal is expected to complete later this year, but still needs to be approved by competition authorities.