A strong sales performance has boosted Sainsbury’s profits in the half-year to 3 October 2009.
The retailer reported a 32% leap in pre-tax profit year-on-year to £342 million. Total sales (including VAT) were up 3.7 per cent to £11.2bn.
Underlying pre-tax profit, excluding exceptional items – such as a £37m positive property revaluation, rose 18.5% to £307 million.
Total sales growth excluding fuel was 7.9 per cent while like-for-like sales (excluding new store openings) grew by 5.7 per cent.
Sainsbury’s said its weekly transactions had risen to over 18.5 million, up 800,000 year-on-year.
New jobs
The retailer plans to create 10,000 new jobs in the two years to March 2011 having raised £432 million to grow space by 15 per cent in the period.
Sainsbury’s said the results showed it had performed well in a tough economic climate.
David Tyler, chairman, said: “We have delivered a strong performance during the first half of the year. Sainsbury’s is responding well to the current economic environment and it has significant opportunity for continued long-term growth.”
Justin King, chief executive, said: “Sainsbury’s has continued to develop its offer to provide customers with a wide product range to suit all needs and budgets. We now have over 18.5 million weekly customer transactions, 800,000 more than this time last year.
“Tight control on operating costs is enabling further investment in the customer offer and, together with our good sales performance, has delivered further strong profit growth.
“Our strategy is now well established and has enabled us to compete successfully through challenging economic conditions. We have continued to grow market share, extended our reach through online operations and have stepped up the expansion of our convenience store network.
Growth plans
“The time is right to accelerate our growth plans and in June we raised £432 million to fund faster growth in our store estate and support our circa £2 billion capital expenditure programme in the two years to 2011.
“We’re on track to grow gross space 15 per cent over this time and we see potential for growth for many years to come.
“As we enter the second half we expect the economic environment to remain challenging and market growth to slow due to reduced food price inflation. We remain confident that our universal customer appeal means we are well positioned to perform in this environment. In addition, the acceleration of our strategy will deliver sustained long-term growth and value to shareholders.”
This seems fantastic. x