Supermarket group Tesco reported a 14 per cent rise in half-year profits and sales and said it was creating 20,000 jobs worldwide this year.
Britain's biggest retailer is now the second-largest retailer in Europe and has the fastest organic growth rate of any retail food group in Europe - about double that of French rival Carrefour.
Tesco is benefiting from a big push into non-food areas such as clothes and entertainment and developing markets in Eastern Europe and Asia. It is also studying the possibility of entering China and Japan.
The chain's underlying profit in the six months to August 11th came to £481 million sterling, which met market expectations. The dividend was raised to 1.67p from 1.48p as group turnover rose to £11.5 billion.
Tesco launched its biggest price-cutting campaign this week by slicing £100 million off the price of 3,500 groceries. It made £400 million of price cuts last year.
UK sales still grew strongly at 10 per cent during the reporting period; international sales grew 46 per cent and contributed £33 million to group profits.
Tesco said its expansion plans this financial year will add 8,000 jobs at home and 12,000 abroad.
Analysts described the results as solid and reliable but said they were unlikely to change full-year earnings forecasts of about £1.2 billion at this stage.