Results round-up

Supermarket chain Wm. Morrisons released its interim numbers for the half year to 31 July on Thursday, with first half like-for-like sales excluding fuel and VAT up 1.4%.

The FTSE 100 firm said total turnover was almost flat, reducing 0.4% to £8.03bn, though underlying profit before tax rose 11% to £157m, or up 34% including the prior year’s restructuring costs.

Underlying earnings per share were up 35% to 5.04p, and the company had free cash flow of £558m, up from £479m.

During the period, Morrisons reduced its net debt by £477m to £1.27bn, below its year-end target.

Its board declared an interim dividend of 1.58p, representing a 5.3% rise year-on-year.

“The new team has made a real difference and delivered further good progress across the board in the first half,” said Morrisons chairman Andrew Higginson.

“Prices are lower, customers are being served better and quality is improving, as demonstrated by Morrisons winning a number of recent prestigious awards such as the 2016 Meat and Fish Retailer of the Year.

“We remain on track to deliver improved profits and returns for shareholders,” he added.

Chief executive David Potts said the company is pleased with positive like-for-like sales and 11% underlying profit growth in the first half.

“Our priorities are unchanged - we have made improvements to the shopping trip for customers and we plan to do more,” he said.

“I would like to thank the entire Morrisons team of food makers and shopkeepers who are working very hard to ‘Fix, Rebuild and Grow’ Morrisons. This turnaround opportunity is in our own hands and I am confident we will succeed.”

High street fashion stalwart Next showed sales growth across the business in its half-year results on Thursday, but earnings were still facing an uphill battle in its retail division.

The FTSE 100 retailer posted sales growth of 0.1% in retail for the six months to July to £1.084bn, with directory sales rising 7.1% to £821.2m and total group sales increasing 2.6% to £1.96bn.

Divisional profit at Next retail slipped by 16.8% for the period, however, to £133.9m, though directory managed a 10.9% increase to £204.2m, with group operating profit down 0.4% to £360.5m.

Profit before tax was up 1.5% at £342.1m, with earnings per share adding 0.8% to 188.6p.

“As expected, it has been a challenging year so far, with economic and cyclical factors working against us, and it looks set to remain that way until mid-October at the earliest,” said Next chief executive Lord Wolfson.

“We remain clear about where we need to focus our energies and continue to work on the priorities we set out at the beginning of the year.”

Lord Wolfson said the company will continue its efforts to improve buying processes, pushing the boundaries of what it can achieve in terms of design and quality.

It will also upgrade the UK directory business, developing new ways of recruiting customers, stimulating sales from existing customers, presenting its website, personalising the offer and improving the delivery service.

He explained that the board will also focus on continuing to develop the directory division's two growth businesses - label and overseas - as well as develop and profitably expand the UK retail store network, and control costs through innovation.