London, May 6 - The Co-Operative Group, Britain's biggest mutual retailer, posted an 11 percent rise in underlying full-year profit on Wednesday and said its core food business had made a strong start to its new financial year.
The group, which in the UK's fifth-largest food retailer, third-biggest pharmacy chain and biggest provider of funeral services, said it made an operating profit before one-off items of 393 million pounds ($592.6 million) in the year to Jan 10, up from 355 million pounds in the previous year.
Underlying sales increased 13.4 percent to 9.4 billion pounds.
During the year the Co-op acquired the Somerfield supermarket chain and agreed to merge its financial services business with the Britannia Building Society. In 2007 it merged with United Co-operatives.
The Co-op said its food business increased like-for-like sales by 5 percent excluding fuel, ahead of the industry average.
In the first-quarter of 2009 the food business' like-for-like sales were up 6.5 percent excluding fuel.
"While the economic outlook clearly remains difficult, we believe that the Co-operative group is in a strong position," said Chief Executive Peter Marks.