Sainsbury staff share £47m as profits soar

King himself will pick up £6 million in cash and shares, dwarfing the average £400 for the 117,000 staff.

In the year to 22 March, Sainsbury's sales rose nearly 6% to £19.2billion, with profits up a third at £488 million.

King claimed his drive to Make Sainsbury's Great Again is now complete, with 13 successive quarters of like-forlike sales growth leading to a doubling of profits during his time in charge.

The share price performance has been sluggish since two failed takeover bids last year - one led by private-equity house CVC and the other by Qatari fund Delta Two.

Delta, a 29% shareholder, is free to launch another bid from this week and could make a much lower offer than its earlier £10.6 billion effort.

With consumers worried about food price rises, King insisted that official measures of inflation do not allow for the intense competition in the supermarket sector, failing to pick up on twoforone offers or other special deals.

He said: "The Government's measure of inflation is pretty narrow whereas we measure 150,000 items every week. There are some things that have seen very dramatic increases, but that is not the way people shop."

Last year Sainsbury paid £27 million to end an Office of Fair Trading investigation into price-fixing on dairy products.

Asked if he regretted settling so early, King repeated his claim that the company felt it had merely responded to political pressure to help farmers by raising what it paid them for milk. "We feel wronged," he said. "Everyone from the Prime Minister down wanted us to do it. But in terms of the fine we took the view that we should accept it and move on."

The £47million bonus pot takes the amount paid out to staff in the last three years to £150 million.

King's £6 million is part of a long-term retention scheme laid out in 2004, aimed at rewarding and keeping an executive increasingly regarded as one of the most talented retailers in the UK.

Four executives are to join the operating board as part of a shake-up announced today. Angela Morrison, Neil Sachdev, John Rogers and Luke Jensen join a 12-strong team that reports to the main board. Shareholders get a final dividend of 9p a share, a rise of 22%.

TESCO'S £1 BILLION MOVE INTO KOREA

Tesco today splashed out nearly £1 billion bulking up its operations in South Korea by buying 36 hypermarkets in the country. The deal will massively increase its presence in the capital Seoul, where a quarter of the country's population lives. The chain being bought currently trades as Homever and is being sold by local fashion retailer E-Land for £95.8 million. The stores will be rebranded under the British group's Korean fascia of Tesco Homeplus. South Korea is now Tesco's biggest profit contributor after the UK and today's deal adds about 50% more space there. Tesco quit Taiwan just over a year ago but has found South Korea a far more lucrative prospect.