Country Road has lifted both its annual sales and profit but remains unclear about whether retail mogul Solomon Lew will sell his stake in the fashion chain.

The retailer’s sales rose eight per cent to $849.6 million and its pre-tax profit more than doubled in the 2013/14 financial year.

“We are pleased to have delivered continued strong growth in sales and profit for the full financial year despite some challenging market headwinds from increased competition, unseasonably warm weather and contractionary fiscal policy in the second half of the financial year,” CEO Iain Nairn said in a statement on Monday.

Country Road’s pre-tax profit rose by between 55.7 per cent and 70.1 per cent to $87-$95 million for the year to June 28.

The figures were part of Country Road’s unaudited trading update, released ahead of its full year results due in early August.

But mystery still surrounds whether Country Road’s key shareholder Lew will sell his 11.9 per cent stake in the fashion retailer as part of a plan by South Africa’s Woolworths to buy department store chain David Jones.

The South African retailer and Lew have had several disputes as joint owners of Country Road, and Woolworths has offered to buy out Lew for $209 million if the David Jones takeover gets shareholder approval.

Lew recently bought a 9.89 per cent stake in David Jones.

The retail mogul has so far remained silent on whether he will accept either of Woolworths’ offers.

David Jones has launched an advertising blitz to encourage shareholders to lodge their proxy votes on the Woolworths’ $2.2 billion takeover offer before a meeting on July 14.

AAP