Sainsbury’s on track to hit sales targets

Sainsbury’s is continuing its fight back against declining market share with another rise in sales for the first half of the year.

In financial figures for the six months to 8 October, the retailer said pre-tax profit hit £87m, up on a loss of £292m for the same period last year.

But underlying pre-tax earnings were broadly level, even though like-for-like sales (excluding petrol) rose by more than 2% to £8.82bn.

The retailer said it was still on track to meet its three-year plan of boosting sales by £2.5bn.

“Customer satisfaction has improved and we now have 15 million customers
a week. Customers are now able to complete more of their weekly shop and are shopping more frequently with us again,” said chief executive Justin King.