SAINSBURY's and British Airways's annual results are the highlights of a busy week, which also sees figures from travel giants TUI Travel and Thomas Cook.
British Airways reports on Friday after a torrid year, blighted by its chaotic move to Heathrow's Terminal 5 and fuel-price woes from soaring oil costs.
The shambolic opening of T5 at the end of March saw the group suffer embarrassment worldw
ide, while the latest statistics show it also had a negative impact on business, with 7.9 per cent fewer passenger travelling with BA last month year on year.
Friday's figures will not show any hit from the T5 troubles, coming right at the end of its financial year, but they are likely to reveal the true cost of BA's vulnerability to the rocketing cost of crude oil. Despite its cost pressures, BA is expected to increase pre-tax profits by 44 per cent to £877 million.
But, as with its third-quarter results, the market is likely to look past any immediate profit cheer to concentrate on future prospects. News earlier this month of a potential tie-up between BA and two US rivals gave the airline's shares some brief respite on the London market.
Supermarket giant Sainsbury's has had a far more successful year, as its results are expected to reveal on Wednesday. It heaped the pressure on its main rivals in March with news of a 4.1 per cent hike in fourth quarter like-for-like sales, which saw full-year comparative sales lift by 3.9 per cent.
Against Tesco's annual sales growth of 3.5 per cent, excluding petrol, the result signalled that Sainsbury's is reclaiming ground lost to competitors in recent years and reaping the benefits of its turnaround plan.
The revival strategy has delivered £2.7 billion of sales growth since its launch three years ago, compared with original hopes for a £2.5bn improvement.
The sales success is set to be reflected in its results for the year to 22 March, with analysts pencilling in a double-digit rise in underlying pre-tax profits to £485m, up 28 per cent. This comes despite the pressure of soaring commodity prices, which have seen the cost of rice rise 72 per cent and corn by 29 per cent in the past 12 months.
Transport company FirstGroup, which owns ScotRail, – the firm behind the First Great Western rail service out of London Paddington labelled "unacceptable" by ministers this year – is likely to stoke further criticism with bumper annual profits on Wednesday. It is expected to unveil pre-tax profits of about £248m for the year to end-March – 77 per cent ahead of the previous 12 months.
The Aberdeen-based group's bottom line will be boosted by six-month trading from US arm Laidlaw – the yellow school bus giant and owner of trans-American bus firm Greyhound – which it bought for £1.9bn last year.
The new chief executive of DSG International will announce the results of his group-wide business review on Thursday at a difficult time for the Currys owner.
John Browett, who joined the company from Tesco at the end of last year, unveils his plans for the group as DSG battles against a consumer-spending slowdown, profit warnings and – most recently – news of a potentially significant new competitor.
Last week, Carphone Warehouse announced a tie-up with US giant Best Buy to launch consumer electronics stores across the UK and Europe from next year in a move that will put the firms in direct competition to the likes of DSG.
DSG issued a profits warning last month, bracing investors for lower-than-expected profits of between £200m and £210m in the year to 5 April .
TUI Travel and Thomas Cook will give their verdict on the travel sector when the two firms report interim figures tomorrow and Thursday, respectively. But the market will be focusing on comments on summer 2008 and bookings for 2009 rather than performance over the past six months.
First up is TUI, which owns Thomson and First Choice. It is likely to reiterate that current demand for travel remains strong. Thomas Cook likewise gave a bullish account of the UK travel market in its last update, with average UK selling prices 2 per cent ahead of last year.
ALL IS NOT EXCEEDINGLY GOOD FOR PREMIERPREMIER Food, which makes products such as Mr Kipling cakes and Branston Pickle, updates on first-quarter trading tomorrow after a difficult start to 2008.
The group has struggled with soaring food prices and interest payments on its £1.6 billion debts following the acquisitions of Campbell's Soup and RHM, which makes Hovis bread.
Premier was forced to slash its dividend two months ago as the group unveiled a £73.5 million pre-tax loss for 2007, with wheat alone adding £40m to its costs.
Analysts are expecting further volume declines across the business during a tough first half, although this should be partially disguised by higher prices.
Citigroup analyst Jeff Stent said: "Premier has well flagged that full-year delivery will be weighted to the second half and we expect this to be reflected in the statement.
"We will be seeking confidence that Premier's full-year expectations remain unchanged." The firm might also confirm reports that three group businesses – chilled foods firm RF Brookes, cake and confectionery group Avana and French baker Sofrapain – are up for sale.
The full article contains 914 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
