The software -- designed to compete with US technology titans Microsoft, Symantec and McAfee -- will include tools for personal finance, CD and DVD burning, photo editing, as well as anti-virus and office products.

Each piece of software will retail for under 20 pounds (29.5 euros, 37.5 dollars) and will launch across 100 British stores this month before rolling out nationwide, Tesco said in a statement.

The retailer, which estimates that the British software market is worth 8.5 billion pounds (12.5 billion euros, 15.9 billion dollars), is working with IT company Formjet to provide the Tesco-branded technology.

Tesco was due Tuesday to publish results for the first half of its current financial year.

Analysts' consensus forecasts are for a pre-tax interim profit of about 1.13 billion pounds.

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