Tesco will admit to another year of falling sales and profits this week, piling even more pressure on the supermarket chain's struggling chief executive, Philip Clarke.
Britain's largest retailer is expected to announce profits of £3.2bn on Wednesday – a drop of 9% from £3.5bn last year – as sales and market share have also withered.
Since replacing Sir Terry Leahy in 2011, Clarke has been desperately searching for some good news to deliver to shareholders, but has instead presided over a string of downgrades. Most memorably, in 2012, Tesco was forced to issue its first profit warning in more than two decades, while last week its market share hit a 10-year low of 28.6%.
The embattled executive is also in need of answers as to why, after spending more than £1bn on store refurbishments, extra staff and new product ranges, the retailer's share price is also at a 10-year low of 281p.
One retail watcher said: "If you look at sectors like airlines or hotels, sales at the budget and higher ends are booming. It is the middle market that was squeezed out. That is what is happening with food retailing.
"You can't argue big box supermarkets don't work – when they obviously do for Aldi and Lidl. Tesco has just been very slow to realise that the consumer has changed. It has got it wrong on price."
Even so, there are large shareholders willing to give Clarke more time, as they argue he is attempting to turn around the 3,000-store UK business at a difficult time.
There is fiercer competition from the German discounters, while the switch in emphasis towards more fashionable convenience stores cannot happen immediately, despite Tesco rapidly opening many of this type.