“Customer numbers are in strong growth and we have outperformed the food retail industry, as measured by IGD, for 16 of the last 20 weeks.
“This is a solid endorsement of our customer-focused strategy to be ‘Britain’s favourite local grocery shop’.”
Somerfield – currently up for sale with a £2bn-£2.5bn price tag – also announced today it was selling off seven trading stores to Tesco.
The group said the move was in line with its policy of disposing of stores “which are not aligned with its overall strategic objectives”.
It did not say where the stores were, but one is understood to be at Kirkwall in the Orkney islands.
Orkeny MPs are concerned over the potential affect on local businesses.
Somerfield also said it would open three new stores next month in Hove, Bristol and Hopton-on-Sea.
It aims to open 250 new, smaller stores over the next three years, 50 of them in the next 12 months. The stores will be in high street, city or small-town locations.
