Tesco made a loss of stg£6.38bn (€8.85bn) in its last financial year, the worst in its history and the sixth-biggest announced by a UK company.
The bulk of the statutory loss came from stg£7bn (€9.71bn) in one-off charges, the majority in writedowns on the value of its store portfolio "reflecting challenging industry conditions and profit decline," Tesco said.
Chief executive Dave Lewis said the wider results for the year to February 28th reflected "a deterioration in the market and, more significantly, an erosion of our competitiveness over recent years."
The last financial year saw Tesco forced into a string of profit warnings as trading continued to deteriorate amid an industry-wide price war, costing Mr Lewis's predecessor, Philip Clarke, his job.
Trading profit for 2014/15 fell 58% to stg£1.4bn (€1.9bn) but the chain said today its like-for-like sales volumes in the UK were now in growth for the first time in four years as Mr Lewis sought to put the customer first and implement wider changes to limit costs.
It admitted tough trading continued overseas, with like-for-like sales in Ireland falling more than 6%.
Last autumn, it emerged that Tesco had overstated profits by stg£263m (€365m), sparking a series of inquiries involving the UK Serious Fraud Office, the accounting watchdog and the Groceries Code Adjudicator.
The trading issues prompted Mr Lewis to announce an overhaul of the way it deals with suppliers in the UK.
Tesco suspended nine executives over the affair, most of whom have left the company, some after being reinstated to their roles.
In January, Mr Lewis outlined proposals to relocate Tesco's head office, close dozens of stores and terminate its defined benefit pension scheme in an effort to save costs.
He also plans to sell a stake in Dunnhumby, its customer loyalty arm, and has introduced a long-term price-cutting initiative across hundreds of core grocery items.
Reducing head office staff
In total, a cull of head office staff will involve thousands of job cuts while the chain's decision to terminate the building of 49 new stores contributed £925m to its writedowns.
One extra cost Tesco has agreed is to contribute stg£270m (€374m) a year to its pension fund after a valuation revealed a £2.8bn (€3.8bn) deficit at the end of March last year.
Mr Lewis said: "The market is still challenging and we are not expecting any let-up in the months ahead.
"When you add to this the fundamental changes we are making to our business and our offer, it is likely to lead to an increased level of volatility in short-term performance.
"Our clear priority - and the one that will deliver sustainable value for our shareholders - is to improve consistently for customers."
"The changes we have made and will continue to make put us in a stronger position to do this."
Newstalk.com's business editor, Vincent Wall, says most of the loss was on property.
