15th Oct 2015 06:46
LONDON (Alliance News) - Booker Group PLC on Thursday reported a rise in profit in the first half of its financial year although sales fell slightly as it was hit by the UK government's ban on tobacco displays in small shops, which came into force earlier in the year.
The convenience store chain operator reported a 10% rise in pretax profit in the 24 weeks ended September 11 to GBP74.1 million from GBP67.4 million the year before, although revenue fell 1% to GBP2.24 billion from GBP2.26 billion.
It said revenue was hit by a 3.7% decrease in tobacco sales which it said was due to the tobacco display ban, while like-for-like non-tobacco sales grew 0.6%.
Booker added that since completing its acquisition of the Budgens and Londis convenience store chains in September, trading in the first four weeks of the second half is ahead of the same period the year before. It warned, however, that the UK's food market remains very competitive and that it expects the challenging consumer and market environment to persist through the coming year.
Booker will pay an interim dividend of 0.57 pence, a 10% increase on what it paid the prior year.
"Whilst there is increasing price competition in the UK grocery and discount sectors, we will continue to deliver our plans to offer our customers even better choice, prices and service. We are on track to deliver an outcome for the financial year in line with our plans and to make progress in this challenging environment," Booker said.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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