World Cup helps boost Sainsbury sales
Resurgent British supermarket chain Sainsbury’s posted its sixth successive quarter of sales growth today, as its recovery plan remained on track.
The supermarket giant said like-for-like sales, excluding petrol, were up 5.7% in the 12 weeks to June 17.
Chief executive Justin King added that trading in the last couple of weeks was particularly strong thanks to warmer weather and the World Cup.
Like-for-like sales, including petrol, were up 7.1% in the quarter, while total sales on Sainsbury's forecourts and in its stores and online were up 8.1%.
The boost in first quarter sales came after Sainsbury’s managed to turn the first loss in the company’s history into profits last year.
The loss came as the company was rocked by dwindling sales and profits as Asda and Tesco in particular took control of the UK grocery market.
Mr King was brought in to revive the fortunes of the struggling supermarket and launched a three-year recovery plan called Making Sainsbury’s Great Again.
It included the recruitment of more staff and the launch of the Try Something New Today campaign spearheaded by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver.
Today Mr King said: “This quarter is a good start to the second year of our Making Sainsbury’s Great Again lan.
“We are now providing a much better and more consistent shopping experience. We have listened to customers and responded to what’s important to them.
“We’ve continued our investment in lower prices, raised quality standards and developed new products, and our sales performance continues to reflect the restored confidence customers now have in our ability to deliver great products at fair prices.”
Mr King said the like-for-like sales growth in its stores of 5.7% was ahead of the rest of the grocery market, as Sainsbury’s continued its battle for second place with Asda.
The most recent market research from TNS showed that Sainsbury’s had a 16% share of the market while Asda took 16.4% and Tesco plundered a massive 31.1%.
But Mr King said he was confident the recovery of Sainsbury’s could continue.
“A combination of warm weather and additional sales of products related to the World Cup, where Sainsbury’s is official supermarket of the England football team, has led to a particularly good trading performance during the past couple of weeks, after the sector generally experienced a slower level of growth after Easter,” said Mr King.
“Going forward we are up against tougher comparatives and the market continues to be very competitive, although we continue to believe our underlying sales performance can achieve the goal outlined in our Making Sainsbury’s Great Again plan.”
