British supermarket king Tesco on Wednesday registered a nine-percent increase in annual net profits, helped by cost-cutting and its acquisition of wholesaler Booker. The nation's biggest retailer posted the gains during a tough time for British high street chains and in the face of stiff competition from low-price rivals.
Tesco said in a statement that profit after tax increased to £1.3 billion ($1.7 billion, 1.5 billion euros) in the group's 2018/2019 financial year to February.
That compared with a slightly smaller net profit of £1.2 billion in 2017/2018.
Pre-tax profits meanwhile surged by almost a third to £1.67 billion.
Revenues, aided by last year's £3.7-billion purchase of Booker, jumped 11.2 percent to £63.9 billion.
In home market Britain, like-for-like sales - which strip out the impact of new floor space - rose 1.7 percent.
The performance was praised by chief executive Dave Lewis, who was parachuted into Tesco in 2014 to help transform fortunes at the group which had posted a record loss in 2014/2015.
Lewis embarked upon a radical cost-cutting and asset-selling transformation plan as also he sought to combat fierce domestic competition, particularly from German discounters Aldi and Lidl.
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