Financial performance

Group performance	2011/12 £m	2010/11 £m	Change %
Underlying results
Sales (including VAT) ⁽¹⁾	24,511	22,943	6.8
Sales (inc VAT, ex fuel)			4.5
Operating profit ⁽²⁾	789	738	6.9
Net finance cost ⁽³⁾	(109)	(97)	(12.4)
Share of JV profits ⁽⁴⁾	32	24	33.3
Profit before tax ⁽⁵⁾	712	665	7.1
Tax rate ⁽⁶⁾	26.1%	26.0%	(12) bps
Basic earnings per share ⁽⁷⁾	28.1p	26.5p	6.0
Full year dividend per share	16.1p	15.1p	6.6
Statutory results
Items excluded from underlying results	87	162	n/a
Profit before tax	799	827	(3.4)

Sales: (ex VAT) £22,294m (2010/11: £21,102m)
Underlying operating profit: Underlying profit before underlying net finance costs and share of underlying post-tax results from joint ventures
Underlying net finance costs: Net finance costs before financing fair value movements and the IAS 19 pension financing element
Underlying share of post-tax results from joint ventures: 50% share of post-tax results from joint ventures before investment property fair value movements and financing fair value movements
Underlying profit before tax: Profit before tax from continuing operations before any profit or loss on disposal of properties, investment property fair value movements, impairment of goodwill, financing fair value movements, IAS 19 pension financing element and one-off items that are material and infrequent in nature
Underlying tax: Tax charge attributable to underlying profit before tax
Underlying basic earnings per share: Profit after tax from continuing operations attributable to ordinary shareholders before any profit or loss on disposal of properties, investment property fair value movements, impairment of goodwill, financing fair value movements, IAS 19 pension financing element and one-off items that are material and infrequent in nature, divided by the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue during the period, excluding those held by the ESOP trusts, which are treated as cancelled