Japanese retail giant Aeon on Wednesday reported record-high sales and operating profit for its business year through February.
Aeon group, which has more than 17,000 stores worldwide, says the robust performance came on the back of demand for profitable private-brand products.
Aeon says group sales rose 4.8 percent from the previous year to more than 9.5 trillion yen. That's about 62 billion dollars.
Operating profit surged nearly 20 percent to 1.6 billion dollars.
Aeon says a rise in food costs saw customers turning to lower-priced private brand items. Such products come with larger profit margins for retailers over makers' brands.
The retailer projects sales for the current business year will top 10 trillion yen, or 65 billion dollars, for the first time.
However, it also notes that personnel costs will likely increase by more than 420 million dollars due to wage increases and other factors.