¹ Before property disposals

Sir Stuart Rose, Chairman, said:“We are pleased with our first half performance. Our strong customer offer, together with tight management of costs and margin, has allowed us to report a profit slightly ahead of last year, despite a challenging economic environment. We increased our share of the clothing market over the period, and our performance in Food has also improved.

“We continue to focus on providing better than ever value for our customers, for the all important Christmas period and into 2010. In the longer term we have clear plans to deliver sustainable growth by driving international and multi-channel, supported by the roll out of new supply chain and systems platforms. Our positive cash flow and financial position gives us the capacity to implement our plans.

“We have had a good start to the third quarter. However, the market remains competitive and, as we come up against volatile trading conditions last year, we remain cautious about the outlook for Christmas and the year ahead. We are increasingly confident that customers recognise and trust our outstanding quality, value and ethical stance.”We will update on our third quarter sales on 6 January 2010.

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