UK retailer Sainsbury’s has grown market share after outperforming the market in the 28 weeks to October 2 with like-for-like sales up more than two per cent, it was revealed today. David Tyler, chairman, said: “The Board is pleased with Sainsbury’s continued strong performance in the first half of the year. 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.
“We have made excellent progress towards delivering our strategic objectives, particularly in offering our customers great food at fair prices and growing our space. Our interim dividend is 4.3 pence per share, which is in line with our policy to pay this at 30 per cent of the previous year’s full-year dividend.”
Justin King, chief executive, added: “Sainsbury’s has continued to outperform, as we offer healthy, fresh and tasty food at great value and continue to grow our new space. Customer numbers are now at an all-time high of over 20 million transactions every week, which is up one million on last year, a clear indication of our growing universal customer appeal.
“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. Total sales (ex fuel) for the first half were up 4.8 per cent and like-for-like sales were up two per cent.
“Colleagues have worked hard to deliver great service, resulting in higher customer satisfaction. Further productivity savings, tight control on operating costs, together with our strong sales performance have all helped to deliver good profit growth.
“We have added gross space of 540,000 sq ft to our store estate, opening or extending 29 stores and creating over 2,000 new jobs with Sainsbury’s. We remain on track to deliver our target space growth of 15 per cent over the two years to March 2011.
“As we enter the second half, we expect the economic environment to remain challenging. 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.”Total sales (inc VAT) up 7.0 per cent to £11,944 million (2009/10: £11,158 million)• Total sales (inc VAT, ex fuel) up 4.8 per cent• Like-for-like sales (inc VAT, ex fuel) up 2.0 per cent• Underlying operating profit up 8.2 per cent to £370 million (2009/10: £342 million)• Underlying profit before tax up 8.1 per cent to £332 million (2009/10: £307 million)(1)• Profit before tax up 36.3 per cent to £466 million (2009/10: £342 million)• Underlying basic earnings per share up 8.3 per cent to 13.1 pence(2009/10: 12.1 pence)(2)• Basic earnings per share up 33.6 per cent to 18.7 pence (2009/10: 14.0 pence)• Interim dividend of 4.3 pence (2009/10: 4.0 pence), up 7.5 per cent(3)
(11 Nov) © 2010 - ESM: European Supermarket Magazine
