J Sainsbury PLC on Thursday said its momentum gives ‘real confidence’ heading into Christmas after serving up profit and sales growth in the first half.
The London-based food retailer said pretax profit rose 5.0% to £271 million in the 28 weeks to September 13 from £258 million the year prior, while underlying pretax profit jumped 10% to £340 million from £309 million.
Retail operating profit was flat at £504 million compared to £503 million a year ago.
Basic earnings per share more than doubled to 7.2 pence from 3.2p.
Revenue, excluding VAT and including fuel, rose 2.8% to £17.58 billion from £17.11 billion.
Sainsbury’s sales, excluding fuel, were up 5.2% in the period, with Grocery sales growth of 5.3% and Sainsbury’s General Merchandise & Clothing sales up 3.3%. Argos sales were 2.3% higher while fuel sales fell 11%.
The FTSE 100 listing raised the interim dividend per share to 4.1p from 3.9p a year prior.
Sainsbury said bank disposal proceeds will now exceed £400 million, higher than originally expected.
As previously announced, it will return £250 million of the proceeds to shareholders via a special dividend of 11.00p per share.
It will additionally return £150 million of disposal proceeds through share buybacks, with £50 million to be added to the core £200 million buyback in financial 2026 and £100 million to be added to the core buyback for financial 2027.
Chief Executive Simon Roberts said: ‘We started this year with one clear priority - to sustain the strong competitive position we have built over the last five years. We have delivered on this in the first half.’
‘Our offer has never been stronger. So while we expect the market to remain highly competitive, our momentum gives us real confidence as we head into Christmas and we have strengthened our profit guidance today,’ he added.
Sainsbury now expects Retail underlying operating profit of more than £1 billion in financial 2026 compared to prior guidance of around £1 billion.
It continues to expect to deliver Retail free cash flow of more than £500 million.
Shares in J Sainsbury rose 1.0% to 340.67 pence each in London on Thursday morning.
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