Sunny spring boosts sales at Sainbury’s
Sainsbury’s has reported a boost in fresh food sales this spring despite growing competition in the UK’s supermarket sector.
The FTSE 100 company said that overall sales grew 4.9 per cent in the 16 weeks to June 21, ahead of the market.
Grocery sales grew 4.9 per cent, while non-food sales grew 4.2 per cent.
“We have great momentum, growing faster than the market for three consecutive years and we are well set to deliver another strong performance over the summer,” chief executive Simon Roberts said.
Taste the Difference fresh food sales rose 20 per cent, he added, while convenience sales grew by six per cent.
“We have built further on our strong competitive position, improving our prices against all key competitors year-on-year.
“We’re now offering even more opportunities for customers to save on the items they buy most often through the biggest Aldi Price Match commitment in the market, covering around 800 everyday essentials,” Roberts said.
Competition in the UK’s grocery market has been growing, with concerns that lower prices from Asda as it tries to pull customers back in will hit the profit of other grocers.
Sainsbury’s aims for £1bn cost savings by 2027
The grocer said it was “confident” in delivering £1bn of cost savings by March 2027.
In January, it closed all in-store cafes, affecting 3,000 jobs, which it said had delivered cost savings and higher sales via the conversion of backwall food service space into additional food selling areas.
It has also expanded its use of self-service checkouts, with record customer use of its Smartshop tech in the quarter.
Sainsbury’s has estimated the cost of higher national insurance contributions at £140m. While it hopes to offset this with reduced costs, the company has argued the additional tax will lead to inflation in the UK grocery market