Sainsbury's flourishes as profits soar |
|
|
Published
:
Wed, 15 Nov 2006 11:00
|
LONDON - Supermarket chain J Sainsbury beat the blues by netting a 60 percent increase in pre-tax profits in the six months ending October 7. Even sales surged as the supermarket reported a growth of £9.55 billion or 8.3 percent in the 28 weeks to October.
Pre-tax profits increased to £189 million for the first-half, Sainsbury’s reported. The supermarket group is now mid-way through the three-year recovery program instigated by chief executive Justin King. During this period it has seen a spurt in sales as well as profits. Additional sales of £1.3 billion mean that the group is well on its way to meet Mr King's target of £2.5 billion in three years.
Sainsbury's revealed that items, which featured TV chef Jamie Oliver, sold like hot cakes. Internet sales were up by 40 per cent year on year. The group revealed that it was filling 60,000 orders each week online.
"We have made good progress during the first six months of the year reporting our seventh consecutive quarter of like-for-like sales growth, our best performance for many years," Mr King said. However he was cautious about the future, "Looking forward, we face tougher sales comparatives of over 5% which were achieved in quarters three and four of 2005/06," he admitted.
Sainsbury's TU clothing range also did brisk business during the first six months. The clothes are available at 232 stores and sales reached £250 million over the year.
"We expect the market to remain highly competitive but our first half performance gives us good momentum as customers continue to look for better quality products at competitive prices," King added. Sainsbury's has increased the interim dividend by 11.6 percent to 2.4p a share.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Stock
Quotes * |
|
NASDAQ
|
|
1384.35 |
+68.23 (
5.07 %)
|
| SYMBOL (
2008-11-21 ) |
| LAST |
CHANGE
|
|
RIO TINTO
(
11:29am )
|
|
2100.00 |
+78.00 (
3.72 %)
|
| SYMBOL (
2008-11-21 )
|
| LAST |
CHANGE
|
|
IBM
(
4:01pm ) |
|
74.88 |
+3.14 (
4.32 %)
|
| SYMBOL (
2008-11-21 )
|
| LAST |
CHANGE
|
|
|
Print this Story
Tesco's dominance on the high streets may be curbed 