THE family owned department store group Roches Stores has reported pre tax profits of £930,860 for the year to the end of January 1996, down from £2.3 million the previous year. On a like for like basis, however, the 1995-96 performance was an improvement as the previous year's figures include an exceptional gain of £1.7 million on the disposal of some of the group's property assets. Sales were up from £190.4 million to £202.6 million with trading profits up from £126,959 to £153,490.

At the operating level, Roches operates on very low margins but benefited last year from investment income of over £777,000 - up from £491,000 the previous year. The figures were provided by Private Research.

Roches has also taken a tax charge of £2.44 million into its 1995-96 accounts, mainly because tax losses were surrendered without compensation to another subsidiary. This charge meant that losses after tax were £1.5 million.