Dobbies Garden Centre in Shrewsbury could be sold by owners Tesco

Tesco will unveil its annual results Wednesday and has already started selling or closing loss making businesses bought up during a decade-long spending spree.

Reports suggest Tesco boss Dave Lewis has now given the green light to appointing Greenhill, an investment banking adviser, to work on a sale of Dobbies.

The chain of three dozen garden centres, including sites at Shrewsbury and at Gailey in Staffordshire, revealed losses of £48 million in December.

Tesco is remaining tight-lipped about its plans, saying only: "We do not comment on rumour and speculation".

It is thought that the Harris & Hoole coffee shop chain, Euphorium bakery and Giraffe restaurant chain are also in line for disposal. Tesco announced the closure of its two dozen Nutricentre health stores and concessions last month.

Mr Lewis has also sold off Tesco's business in South Korea for £4 billion as he puts the focus back on the group's UK performance.

It is not clear if the plans for its various businesses will be discussed on Wednesday, when all eyes will be on the headline figures from the UK's largest supermarket. It is expected to show underlying full-year pre-tax profits slipped by just three per cent to £932 million, a vast improvement on the 68 per cent fall it reported a year ago.

Taking into account a massive writedown on the value of the supermarket's property portfolio, it posted an overall £6.4 billion annual loss in 2015, as the group also saw sales collapse at its core UK business.

However, data last week from respected research body Kantar Worldpanel said Tesco improved its sales for the fourth month in a row, adding that sales slipped by just 0.2 per cent in the 12 weeks to March 27.

This comes after the business reported a surprise 1.3 per cent rise in like-for-like sales over the six weeks to January 9, covering the crucial Christmas period.

Analysts said the supermarket's recent performance is a further sign that chief executive Dave Lewis is turning the massive business around, since taking over from previous boss Philip Clarke in September 2014.

The moves marks a welcome improvement after a grim couple of years, with Tesco uncovering a £326 million accounting black hole in autumn 2014 that plunged the group into crisis.

Trading across the sector has been hit amid falling food prices, compounded by a price war sparked by the increasing might of discounters Aldi and Lidl.

Tesco has shut 53 unprofitable stores since the start of its financial year and shelved plans to open a further 49 stores. It's woes also saw it pull plans to build a major store on Wolverhampton's former Royal Hospital site. In March it sold the land to the Homes & Communities Agency which plans to use it for housing.

Mr Lewis has also cut prices across hundreds of lines, while making a raft of changes such as shutting Tesco's final salary pension scheme, disposing of its loss-making Blinkbox operation selling online videos, and moving its main headquarters from Cheshunt to Welwyn Garden City in a measure expected to save £250 million.

Analysts at Shore Capital said Tesco "is now operating more on the front foot in the UK".

The broker added: "We believe that the major programme of cost reduction set around the mantra of simplification has delivered results that are evident in-store."