Sainsbury PLC: Plans Growth As Profits Rise

London / UK. (js) Announcing its preliminary results for the 52 weeks to March 20, the British grocery giant J. Sainsbury PLC revealed that average weekly customer numbers are up by one million year-on-year, helping the firm to total and like-for-like sales growth of 6,7 and 4,3 percent respectively. During the 52 weeks to March 20th total sales including VAT and fuel increased by 5,1 percent to 21’421 million GBP, while underlying operating profit grew by 8,9 percent to 671 million GBP. Underlying pre-tax profit stood at 610 million GBP. Reflecting on the good results, Sainsbury´s Chief Executive Justin King said like-for-like sales have grown cumulatively over five years by almost 25 percent. «Colleagues have worked hard to deliver operational excellence resulting in better service and further productivity savings which have contributed to 17,5 percent growth in underlying profit before tax, a good performance in difficult trading times», he added. Meanwhile, more than 6’500 retail jobs have been created over the course of the twelve-month period and there are plenty more in the pipeline as the company is expecting to growth further in the year ahead. The business also recently announced plans to provide around 100 contract jobs with its suppliers this summer, offering unemployed people the opportunity to get their careers moving again with twelve months of paid work.

Info: «Preliminary Results for the 52 weeks to 20 March 2010» (complete news release on jsainsburys.co.uk inclusive tables (PDF, 31 pages, 211 KB).