J Sainsbury PLC (LSE:SBRY) grew half-year profits 23%, and said it is “well placed” to deal with supply chain challenges and that while customers were returning to many pre-pandemic shopping habits, online sales remained very strong.
The FTSE 100 supermarket group saw like-for-like sales drop 1.4% in its second quarter after climbing 1.6% in the first, with retail sales as a whole up only 0.2% year-on-year.
Grocery sales were up 0.8% on last year and 9.1% on two years ago, and general merchandise sales declined 5.8%.
The grocery performance, as people continue to consume more food and drink at home than they did before the pandemic, plus cost-cutting, especially at Argos, enabled the grocer to report underlying profit before tax of £371mln for the 28 weeks ended 18 September, 56% higher than the equivalent period two years ago.
Total group revenue was boosted by fuel sales, climbing 5.3% to £15.7bn.
Retail free cash flow was strong at £554mln, but down from £943mln a year ago.
The interim dividend was held at 3.2p per share and net debt was further trimmed.
Chief executive Simon Roberts said, “Our industry faces labour and supply chain challenges. However our scale, advanced cost saving programme, logistics operations and strong supplier relationships put us in a good position as we head into Christmas.”
He continues to expect to report underlying PBT of at least £660mln for the full year to March 2022.