First-half profit at British supermarket group Sainsburys 64 per cent, the company said today, as chief executive Mr Justin King battles to regain market share and restore financial health to Britain's third-largest foodseller.
In interim results published less than a month after a far-reaching strategy review, Sainsbury said underlying pre tax profit came in at £131 million (€187 million).
The figure was almost at the mid-point of its October forecast range of £125-£135 million , and compares with last year's profit of £366 million €523 million.
Sainsbury repeated its guidance for the year that underlying pretax profits for the second half were not expected to be significantly different from the first six months, putting full-year profits firmly in the £260-£265 million range.
However, the business review will incur costs of £550 million, and so the company will post a loss of almost £300 million before a £275-million gain on the sale of the Shaw's business in the US earlier this year.