	woolworth u k says growth prospects exciting woolworth holdings plc wluk l which earlier announced a pre tax profits rise of pct over said its prospects for growth were very exciting the profit figure of mln stg exceeded a forecast by some pct made during the hostile bid by dixons group plc dxns l last year and the company said the results were a major step towards the aim of making woolworth the most profitable retailing group in the u k it aimed to produce growth from all its businesses and look for opportunities to acquire specialist retail businesses earlier this month the group said that tentative merger talks with the high street pharmacist underwoods plc had been called off and recently announced a mln stg recommended offer for charlie browns car part centres plc the b and q do it yourself centres raised sales by pct and retail profit by pct with its pretax contribution of mln making it the largest single component the company said that the improvement had been achieved by substantial organic growth in existing stores as well as by the opening of a further new outlets and enhanced margins in other sectors the comet electrical chain raised retail profits by pct to mln stg while the woolworth chain reported a pct improvement to mln the company said its property operations would increase substantially following the start of a joint venture deal with developers rosehaugh plc the defence costs against the billion stg bid from dixons resulted in a mln stg extraordinary charge the results were mln stg up on most analysts forecasts as a result the group s shares rose strongly peaking at p from last night s p before easing to p at gmt reuter 
