Sainsbury’s has said that a renewed focus on its own-brand products helped achieve a 16.3 % rise in annual pre-tax profit to £898 million, Sainsbury’s own brand products grew at over twice the rate of branded goods in terms of both sales and volumes.

The re-launched by Sainsbury's range now has over 7,000 lines, while Taste the Difference is showing double-digit growth and has achieved over £1.1 billion in annual sales.

Meanwhile, sales of general merchandise and clothing are increasing at over twice the rate of food and the re-launched Tu clothing brand generated annual sales of approximately £750 million.

David Tyler, chairman, said: "Against a challenging backdrop, Sainsbury's has delivered another year of improving profits, and our market share remains at its highest level for a decade.

"We announced in January that Justin King will step down in July after ten years as chief executive.  His 'Making Sainsbury's Great Again' plan transformed our business and has seen Sainsbury's consistently outperform the growth of the market. Under his leadership, customer transactions have increased by ten million a week to around 24 million, annual sales have grown by £10.3 billion to £26.4 billion and underlying profit before tax has trebled to £798 million. He has been a truly exceptional leader and, on behalf of all our colleagues, I thank him for his outstanding achievements."
Justin King, chief executive said: "In a competitive retail environment we have focused on delivering high quality, affordable own-brand products across all our channels, helping customers to Live Well for Less.

"While the general economic outlook is showing some signs of improvement, conditions in the food retail sector are likely to remain challenging for the foreseeable future as customers continue to spend cautiously. We remain committed to investing for the future and continue to see significant opportunities for growth.  We remain confident that our differentiated offer, supported by the 'value of values', Nectar data and Brand Match, will allow us to outperform our peers in the year ahead.

"After ten wonderful years at Sainsbury's, I will leave the business at our AGM in July and will hand over to Mike Coupe, our Group Commercial Director.  I am delighted that Mike will lead Sainsbury's on the next phase of its journey. Mike played an instrumental role in our 'Making Sainsbury's Great Again' plan and is ideally equipped to lead Sainsbury's as the Company continues to develop and grow in tune with the changing consumer and industry environment."