6th May 2015 06:46
LONDON (Alliance News) - J Sainsbury PLC on Wednesday reported a pretax loss for its recently ended financial year, while its underlying profit before tax and revenue also fell, as it invested in price cuts to compete against its rivals in a deflationary food market.
The supermarket chain reported a pretax loss of GBP72 million for the year ended March 14, compared with a pretax profit of GBP898 million the year before. Its underlying profit before tax fell 15% to GBP681 million from GBP798 million, while underlying group sales fell 0.9% to GBP26.1 billion from GBP26.4 billion.
The pretax loss resulted from a GBP753 million charge to items excluded from the underlying results, including a non-cash impairment and onerous contract charge of GBP628 million, Sainsbury's said.
Sainsbury's will pay a full-year dividend of 13.2 pence per share, down 24% from the 17.3p paid last year.
"The UK marketplace is changing faster than at any time in the past 30 years which has impacted our profits, like-for-like sales and market share. However, we are making good progress with our strategy, and our investment in price and quality is showing encouraging early signs of volume and transaction growth," Chief Executive Mike Coupe said in a statement.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Sainsbury's