The grocer and general merchandise retailer recorded a rise in sales and profits in its interim results, with UK like-for-likes up 2.2%, as its turnaround strategy stays on track.

Tesco plc recorded a group sales increase of 3.3% to £25.2billion for the 26 weeks ended August 26 after its seventh consecutive quarter of growth. Pre-tax profit climbed 12.6% to £562million.

Its UK & ROI operations recorded an operating profit rise of 21.1% to £472million. A breakdown of its 2.2% like-for-like sales increase in the UK, reported a 0.4% rise in transactions and 0.3% rise in volumes.

The results offered no breakdown in terms of how non-food categories performed and talked, instead, of strong volume growth in its fresh food offer. However it did reveal a 1.6% like-for-like sales growth in its UK Extra format – 60,000sq ft stores that boast the largest non-food offer in the portfolio.

Thanks to self-help initiatives, Tesco said it is “firmly on track” to reduce costs by £1.5billion, generate £9billionn of retail cash from operations, and improve operating margins to between 3.5% and 4% by 2019/20.

Chief executive Dave Lewis said: “We are continuing to make strong progress. Sales are up, profits are up, cash generation continues to strengthen and net debt levels are less than half what they were when we started our turnaround three years ago. All of this is possible because of the focus we have placed on serving shoppers a little better every day. Our offer is more competitive and more customers are shopping at Tesco

“Today’s announcement that we are resuming our dividend reflects our confidence that we can build on our strong performance to date and in doing so, create long-term, sustainable value for all of our stakeholders.”