Booker full year profits up on strong sales

Full year pre-tax profits at food wholesaler Booker Group rose 9% to £150.8m on the back of a 5% increase in revenues to £4.9bn.

Non-tobacco sales were up 6.3% and tobacco sales up 2.2%. Like-for-like total sales fell 1.9%.

Basic earnings per share were 7.24 pence, up from 6.73 pence last year.

The group said trading in the first seven weeks of the current financial year was ahead of last year.

“However, we anticipate that the challenging consumer and market environment will persist through the coming year and the UK's food market remains very competitive,” the company said.

“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 supported by the continued delivery of our efficiency programmes.”

“We are on track to deliver an outcome for the new financial year in line with our plans and to make progress in this challenging environment.”