UK retailer Sainsbury’s has seen its like-for-like sales rise marginally (+0.1%) in the 15 weeks to 7 January.
Total retail sales at Sainsbury’s (excluding fuel) were up 0.8% for the period, while the retailer’s Argos operation saw like-for-like sales up 4% (total sales up 4.1%).
“Sainsbury’s offered customers greater-quality food, choice and value than ever before, across all channels,” said chief executive Mike Coupe. “We had a record Christmas week, with over 30 million customer transactions at Sainsbury’s and over £1 billion of sales across the group.”
Coupe noted that online sales comprised 18% of total group sales in the quarter. However, he warned that the market remains competitive in a new Brexit Britain.
“The market remains very competitive, and the impact of the devaluation of sterling remains uncertain. However, we are well placed to navigate the external environment and remain focused on delivering our strategy,” he said.
Commenting on the performance, Barclays European Food Retail Equity Research said, “Clearly, the LFL numbers are both nicely ahead of expectations – the company makes no comment on profit, which suggests it is reasonably comfortable with its own consensus of 16/17 PBT of c£573m.
"Bear in mind: this is a 15-week period, so the better LFL number may not be all down to Christmas – the company commented that its LFL would have been better than the overall +0.1% if you looked at Christmas alone.”
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
