Britain's biggest retailer, supermarket group Tesco, announced Wednesday that it had plunged massively into the red last year as it took a hit on the value of its property.

Tesco, which was hit by a major crisis last October owing to accounting errors that overstated profits, reported a loss after tax of £5.74 billion ($8.58 billion, 8.0 billion euros) in the 12 months to the end of February.

That compared with a net profit of £974 million in 2013/14, the group said in an earnings statement.