Tesco-owned One Stop grew like-for-like sales by 5% last year as the 2017 re-launch of its own label range boosted sales at the convenience chain.

Total sales in the year to 24 February 2018 rose 5.7% to £1.07bn after hitting sales of £1bn for the first time in the previous financial year.

The sales uplift was driven by organic growth, but the chain also opened a net 10 new stores in the year to take its period-end operated store total to 168.

Sales were boosted by the re-launch of One Stop’s own-label range in mid 2017 to focus on “lower prices, bigger pack sizes and better value” across a wider range of products.

The own label revamp represented the largest in One Stop’s history, with more than 350 products launched to date.

“In a strong year for One Stop, we have continued to focus on serving local shoppers a little better every day,” said a One Stop spokesman. “Customers are responding very positively to the launch of our One Stop own label range, which offers great quality at low prices on the products that matter most,” said a One Stop spokesman.

The collapse of fresh delivery partner P&H during the period slowed bottom line performance, which was also hit by the national living wage and cost input inflation.

Franchise revenues grew by more than 20% to £85.7m. Gross profits were down 4% to £121.6m in the period, but operating profits were down just 0.8% to 21.7m as exceptional costs fell from £10.7m to £5.4m.

Pre-tax profits rose 7.1% to £20.1m due to a lessening of the £3m of losses on the disposal of assets incurred in the previous year.

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