14 May 2008


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Sainsbury's turns recovery to growth

Sainsbury's

Justin King

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Sainsbury's chief to reap rewards as profits soar 12 May 2008

Sainsbury's has reported strong growth in profits for the 52 weeks to 22 March 2008.

Justin King: led recovery

The supermarket said the results marked the completion of its "Making Sainsbury's Great Again" recovery programme, launched in October 2004.

Underlying profit rose 28% to £488m. Like-for-sales, excluding fuel, were up 3.9%.

Announcing the results, chief executive, Justin King, said: "We have now reported 13 consecutive quarters of like-for-like sales growth and achieved £2.7bn additional sales by March 2008 against the original stretching target of £2.5bn.

"This is a great achievement in a challenging market. We have good momentum as we now focus on taking Sainsbury's from recovery to growth."

King will collect a bonus worth £6.5m for meeting the targets set out in the turnaround plan. A further 1,000 managers will also receive shares under the one-off arrangement.

King revealed Sainsbury's planned to accelerate the development of its non-food offer with new store openings and extensions to existing supermarkets.

The supermarket is also investing £15m in the launch of a non-food online business in the first half of 2009/10.

The new service will provide customers with the choice of a range of Sainsbury's own-brand and branded non-food products.

King added Sainsbury's was also committed to grow its convenience store operation, Sainsbury's Local, its online business and Sainsbury's Bank.

By Fiona Briggs

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