SUPERMARKET chain Sainbury's capped off a three-year turnaround strategy by beating its targets with annual profits of £488 million.
The figure for underlying pre-tax profits, which was slightly ahead of estimates, reflects a rise of more than 28 per cent compared with the previous year.
Sainsbury's said it had exceeded a series of targets laid down in its "Making Sainbury's Gr
eat Again" initiative, launched by chief executive Justin King in 2005.
The company also saw 13 quarters of consecutive like-for-like sales growth, including the most recent quarterly hike of 4.1 per cent, as well as more than doubling its profits from £238 million to £488 million.
Weekly customer figures for the supermarket have also grown from 14m to 16.5m, the company said in its end of year report.
Comparative growth for the full year to March 22 was 3.9 per cent, outperforming rival chain and industry leader Tesco.
Justin King, who joined Sainsbury from Marks & Spencer in March 2004, said: "The plan was based on delivering great quality food at fair prices.
"To achieve this on an ongoing basis, we needed to fix many fundamental parts of our operation.
"Only by satisfying customers and improving sales could we return to sustainable growth in both sales and profitability and this has driven everything we have done over the past three and a half years."
The full article contains 239 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
