UK supermarket chain Sainsbury reported an 11% increase in full year pre-tax profits and said it was making progress on closing the gap with market leader Tesco.
Its profit before tax, exceptional costs and amortisation of goodwill was £695m. This was Sainsbury's second consecutive year of double-digit growth in underlying profit.
Chief executive Peter Davis said the market had clearly slowed in the past four or five months amid falling consumer confidence. 'We have made sound progress during the past year despite increasingly tough market conditions,' he said.
