The retailer has also announced that it plans to raise £445m from investors in order to increase store space by 15& in the two years to March 2011 - it had previously targeted a more modest growth rate of 10%. The expansion will add 2.5m square feet in retail space to its current 16m square feet.
Approximately 60% of the new space will come from new store openings with the rest from extensions. Forty per cent will be spent on allotting space for non-food items.
Rival Tesco announced yesterday (Tuesday) that its sales had grown by 12.6%, excluding fuel. However when its personal finance and international operations were excluded its sales growth was 4.3&.
Sainsbury's said its TU clothing range had its best quarter to date with more than 1m transactions.
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