The expansion of UK retailers into Asian markets could see a surge of procurement jobs created in the UK, according to Peter Burgess, managing director at retail staffing specialist Retail HR.

This comes on the day in which supermarket Tesco reports that itsunderlying profit rose 12.3% to £3.8bn for the year ended February, thanks to a strong performance in Asia.

However, like-for-like sales at stores open at least a year in the UK fell 0.7% in the final quarter, excluding fuel and VAT sales tax.

Burgess told Recruiter: “These [Asian] countries have 11, 12, 14% growth. There are great opportunities out there for retailers. It does look like Tesco is going to be a British Walmart - they are now number two in the world.

“All the buying and all the central procurement are still done here in the UK. Even if they open 100 stores in China, there is a hell a lot of jobs created in the UK.

“At the moment [in the UK], we have stalled — the economy went into shrinkage in the last quarter of last year. The weather didn’t help. This year, with the cuts, everyone is nervous and spending is down. Tesco isn’t immune from that but I think I would expect them to bounce back as soon as the economy recovers. The sector is still the most important employer in the country and that isn’t going to change.”