The Lancashire-based retailer reported a 0.5% increase in revenue to £259.3m in the 52 weeks to March 30, 2019 – the first sales increase for Booths in five years. It also said the sales trajectory of performance against the wider grocery market “continued to improve” towards the end of the year.

However, the upmarket grocer reported a third straight trading loss of £1.2m, though this improved by almost half from the previous year’s loss of £2.2m.

Booths reported a 6.4% increase in EBITDA to £6.9m and its gross margin edged up 0.2% to 9.1%.