Grocery retailer Sainsbury's has reported on a year of good sales and profit performance for the 52-week period ended 19 March 2011, delivered against what the group has called an ongoing challenging economic environment.
Underlying profit before tax grew 9 per cent year-on-year to £665m (€758m), up from the £610m (€696m) reported last year, with basic earnings per share up 10.5 per cent to just over £0.26.
Total sales grew 7.1 per cent to £22.9bn (€26bn) from £21.4bn (€24.4bn) in 2009/10, Sainsbury's revealed, while sales excluding fuel jumped 4.9 per cent and like-for-like sales increased by 2.3 per cent.
'Despite a challenging economic environment, our strategy of universal appeal, underpinned by our values, has enabled us to deliver a good sales and profit performance,' noted group chairman David Tyler.
Operating highlights for the year-long period included increased market share, which grew to 16.3 per cent from 16.1 per cent according to Kantar Worldpanel, increased customer transactions, and the creation of over 6,000 jobs through store investment.
'Sainsbury's has continued to perform well, said chief executive Justin King. 'Customer numbers are at an all-time high of 21m transactions every week, which is up 1m on last year, a clear indication of our growing universal customer appeal across all channels.
'We have added gross space of 1.5m ft2 to our store estate, creating over 6,000 new jobs with Sainsbury's,' he added. 'Strong sales growth, combined with productivity savings and tight control on operating costs, have helped to deliver good profit growth.
Commenting on the year to come, King said the retailer expected a certain amount of economic uncertainty, but remained confident that it would make 'further good progress'.
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