SAINSBURY'S expressed surprise at the speed of its recovery today as first-half sales rose and it clawed back more of the grocery market from its rivals.

The UK's third biggest supermarket chain said like-for-like sales rose 2.1 per cent in the six months to Saturday, October 8, as its strategy of price cuts and swiftly replenishing stock brought shoppers back in droves.

Sainsburys said more than 15 million customers were visiting its stores each week and spending more money despite a trading environment that was expected "to remain highly competitive for the rest of the year".

Executives said it was focused on continuing to grow sales even though the Christmas period was a more positive period for the supermarket last year when the first signs of a trading recovery became visible.

Pre-tax profits from continuing operations totalled £87m in the half year as Sainsbury's turned around losses of £292m at the same stage of 2004. Chief executive Justin King said a 5.6 per cent increase in total sales to £8.82bn was an indication that customers were seeing improvements from the Making Sainsbury's Great Again recovery plan.

Grocery products now cost 1.4 per cent less than last year and items out of stock has been cut by around 75 per cent.

Mr King said: "Customers are now able to complete more of their weekly shop and are shopping more frequently with us again. This is key to reaching our sales growth target of £2.5 billion."

Latest data from researchers TNS suggested that Sainsbury's accounted for 15.6% of all grocery sales in the UK and Mr King said the supermarket appeared to be growing faster than the market overall.

"This is ahead of our expectations and results, in part, from maximising the opportunities presented by the changing competitive environment," Mr King added.

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Sainsbury's, which has 443 supermarkets and 287 convenience stores, said its advertising campaign with the slogan Try Something New Today was proving successful in persuading shoppers to spend more.

Products featured in the campaign since its launch in September have enjoyed sustained growth, with Sainsbury's selling more than half of all British Cox apples in the UK after it trumpeted their addition to sausages and sage.

In other categories, sales of organic produce were 19% higher than last year and it sold 24% more of its premium Taste The Difference range than before.

Prior to the appointment of Mr King, the supermarket was criticised for failing to keep in step with Tesco and Asda, which targeted non-food items as a key path to growth.

Sainsbury's said today that like-for-like sales of its TU clothing range were up 28% on last year and were available in 185 of its stores.

But increased provisions for bad and doubtful debts meant that Sainsbury's Bank was now trading at a loss.

Although customer accounts increased by 16% to 2.4 million, the bank reported operating losses of £5 million for the half year compared with profits of £8 million a year earlier.