The first-half period ended 2 October 2010 has proved to be a positive one for UK retailer Sainsbury's, which has this week revealed that underlying profit before tax jumped 8.1 per cent on the previous year to hit £332m (€385m).
Profit was boosted by a climb in sales for the period of 7 per cent, up to £11.9bn (€13.8bn), an improvement on the £11.1bn (€12.9bn) registered during 2009/10.
'The Board is pleased with Sainsbury's continued strong performance in the first half of the year,' said chairman David Tyler. 'We continue to gain market share and have seen good profit growth with both underlying profit before tax and underlying earnings per share up over eight per cent.'
Group CEO Justin King noted that the retailer had outperformed, with customers flocking to sample Sainsbury's healthy, fresh food in particular.
'Customer numbers are now at an all-time high of over 20m transactions every week, which is up 1m on last year, a clear indication of our growing universal customer appeal,' Mr King revealed. 'We are also pleased with the growth of our channels and services as we continue to extend our offer to more customers. We now have over 340 Convenience stores; online sales are growing by over 25 per cent and the Bank has delivered strong profit growth.
'As we enter the second half, we expect the economic environment to remain challenging,' He added. 'We remain confident that our universal customer appeal, combined with our strong space growth momentum, means we are in a good position to perform well in this environment.'
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