Sainsbury's edges back into growth in second quarter

By Nigel Huddleston

Published: 30 September, 2015

Sales at Sainsbury's nudged into growth in the second quarter of its current financial year.

Total sales excluding fuel were up 0.3% in the 16 weeks to September 26, an improvement on the first quarter fall of 0.6%. First-half sales overall were just off the pace at -0.1%.

Like-for-like retail sales were down 1.1% during the quarter.

Chief executive Mike Coupe said: "During the quarter we saw an improvement in our key trading metrics. Both volume and transactions grew as the decline in average basket spend in supermarkets continued to stabilise.

"While the market is clearly still challenging, with food deflation impacting many categories, we are making good progress on delivering our strategy.

"Our programme to enhance the quality of over 3,000 own-brand products is on track. Taste the Difference volume grew by over 4% in the quarter.

"Year-to-date we have traded well, with both sales and cost savings ahead of expectations. Should current market trends continue, we expect our full year underlying profit before tax to be moderately ahead of our published consensus."

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