Supermarket Booths saw business boom during the pandemic as shuttered restaurants forced customers to cook at home.
The chain, dubbed the ‘Waitrose of the North’, said sales in the year to March 27 were 6.1 per cent higher than a year earlier, at £284.1million.
The upmarket northern grocer – which has 27 stores and employs 2,800 staff – said Covid had caused an ‘extraordinary change’ in profitability as wage and utility costs rose and it paid an ‘extraordinary’ amount to sick and self-isolating staff.
Sales boom: Booths, dubbed the ‘Waitrose of the North’, said sales in the year to March 27 were 6.1% higher than a year earlier, at £284.1m
Booths made £5.8million profit over the year, from a £300,000 loss a year earlier.
It said: ‘Booths has emerged from the pandemic as a stronger business, focused on principle and purpose.’
It came as data showed supermarket prices are rising at their fastest rate since June, driven by the soaring cost of crisps, cat food and savoury snacks.
Over the three months to November 28, the average Briton’s shop got 2.2 per cent more expensive, with a 3.2 per cent jump in November.
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