Sainsbury's Tu to reach £300m

Sainsbury's clothing brand Tu is set to become a £300 million brand in terms of sales this year, and was the grocer's "star performer" for the 28 weeks to October 6.

The supermarket posted like-for-like sales growth across the business of 4% for the period. Total retail sales were up 4.7% to £9.9 billion and pre-tax profits rose 19.5% to £232m.

Tu is now the 11th largest UK clothing retailer by volume. The range was introduced into a further 13 stores during the first half, taking the total to 262 stores. Sainsbury's plans to double the space dedicated to Tu in the next three years.

Tu business unit director Adrian Mountford said: "I am very pleased with our sales performance despite tougher market conditions, and we are firmly on track to deliver our targets. Last week we opened our largest Tu collection at our Colney store in north London."

Tu launched a teen range and men's formalwear this year. It will convert two million T-shirts to Fairtrade cotton by January.

The retailer will dedicate half of its new space to non-food ranges as it develops larger stores of more than 70,000sq ft.

Since March 2005, Sainsbury's total sales have risen by £2.3bn, and it is ahead of its target to hit £2.5bn by March 2008.

The supermarket recently announced a string of staff promotions across its Tu brand. David Francis was promoted to the role of buying and merchandising director, Amanda Burland was made accessories buying manager, and Lucy Drage is now sustainability manager.

 Asda reported a dip in profits for the three months to September 30. It said operating income had fallen marginally below last year and like-for-like growth was in low single digits during the period.

Asda began a price war in July, which included its clothing brand George, and announced a second £150m swathe of price cuts for the run-up to Christmas.