British grocery chain Sainsbury beat forecasts with an 18 per cent rise in full-year profit as it gained customers with new stores and non-food ranges, and said it could cope with a tough economic backdrop.
The group, which trails market leader Tesco and Asda, also said today it would inject more money into its pension scheme after a valuation showed a deficit of £1.2 billion as of March 2009.
Profit before tax and one-off items was £610 million for the year ended March 20th, beating analysts' forecast range of £590-£600 million in a Reuters poll.
"Whilst we expect that the environment will remain challenging and consumer spending will be under pressure, we believe our strong space growth plans, supporting our expanding food, complementary non-food and convenience store businesses ... will enable the business to make further good progress," chief executive Justin King said in a statement.
Reuters