High-end retailer David Jones Ltd (ASX: DJS) has withstood tough times this year as the company reported on Wednesday that despite consumers' tentative shopping behaviour and the dwindling benefits from fiscal stimulus to households, it still managed to register record profit for fiscal 2010.

The company said that its full year net profit after tax surged by 9.1 percent to $170.8 million, coming a hairline-short and still in line with the previously announced earnings guidance of $171.1 million full year bottom line.

From the results, David Jones said that is set to distribute a final dividend of 18 cents per security, fully franked, and en route to a full year distribution of 30 cents per share.

Company chief executive Paul Zahra said that the recently concluded financial year was marked by cautious consumers who elected to repay debts instead of spending their cash on shopping, even when retailers had to resort on sharp discount offerings to attract more buyers.

Still, the luxury department store was able to achieve its highest profit after tax and dividend since the company went public in 1995 as Mr Zahra revealed that "we are two years into our FY09-FY12 Strategic Plan and I am pleased to advise that we are ahead of our stated targets."

He is upbeat that the planned reformatting of David Jones' four stores should open up additional selling space in the new fiscal year, specifying that the company is planning strategic upgrades on its Chadstone and Warringah Mall stores to gain and reallocate more space to high margin categories.

Mr Zahra added that David Jones is in a solid position to gain substantial profit leverage to sales growth through the next fiscal cycle as he expressed confidence that the company is well on its way to achieve profit after tax of up to 10 percent for fiscal 2011 and 2012.