LONDON (Reuters) - British supermarket group Sainsbury's ( JSNSF ) on Thursday kept its forecast for full-year profit growth of up to 10% as it reported a 3.7% rise for the first half, with robust grocery sales offset by a weaker performance in general merchandise.

Under CEO Simon Roberts, Sainsbury's ( JSNSF ) strategy to match discounter Aldi's prices on hundreds of essential items and provide better offers for members of its Nectar loyalty scheme, financed by cutting costs, is paying off.

Britain's No. 2 grocer after Tesco said it still expected 2024/25 retail underlying operating profit, its preferred profit measure, of between 1.01 and 1.06 billion pounds ($1.31-$1.37 billion), a growth of 5% to 10% versus 2023/24.

The group said it also still expected to generate retail free cash flow of at least 500 million pounds.

For the six months to Sept. 14, Sainsbury's ( JSNSF ) made retail underlying operating profit of 503 million pounds, up from 485 million pounds in the same period last year.

Second-quarter like-for-like sales, excluding fuel, rose 4.2%, having been up 2.7% in the first quarter.

($1 = 0.7734 pounds)