Sainsbury’s today (13 November) reported a set of “strong” half-year results, with pre-tax profits up 9% and its highest share of the UK grocery market for a decade.

The UK’s third-largest grocer by sales booked pre-tax profits of GBP433m (US$689.3m) for the 28 weeks to 28 September – up 9.1% on the year.

Underlying pre-tax profits, which strips out items including property proceeds, were up 7% at GBP400m.

Revenue, excluding VAT but including fuel, grew 4.3% to GBP12.68bn. Like-for-like sales were up 1.4%.

Sainsbury’s said it had “outperformed the market”, with its market share hitting 16.8%, according to Kantar Worldpanel data for the 52 weeks to 13 October.

The retailer said own-label sales were growing “at over twice the rate” of branded goods, with its Taste the Difference range seeing sales increase at a “double-digit” rate.

Net profit was up 9.3% at GBP340m.

Shares in Sainsbury’s had climbed 2.03% to 406.9p at 09:20 GMT.

Click here for insight from City analysts on the results.

Click here for a blog on Sainsbury’s comments on consumer confidence and on Christmas – including a link to its latest festive TV ad.

Click here for the full stock exchange announcement and check back later for further coverage of the results.