Sainsbury’s has recorded its first positive sales growth in two years as like-for-like sales rose 0.1 per cent during the fourth quarter.
The retailer, which posted results for the nine weeks to 12 March 2016, said it has seen growth in transaction and volume growth in its supermarkets, while online grocery sales grew by 14 per cent.
As well as like-for-like sales growth, total retail sales for fourth quarter were up 1.2 per cent, excluding fuel. The company opened 16 convenience stores including its second micro store in Richmond, west London, during this quarter.
“We have delivered a strong performance this quarter,” said chief executive Mike Coupe. “Our supermarkets recorded both like-for-like transaction and volume growth and we continue to exceed our internal metrics for service and availability.”
Couple said Sainsbury’s maintained its market share in the quarter, and had capitalised on the post-Christmas health trend by launching several vegetable-based products including boodles (butternut squash noodles) and courgetti (spiralised courgettes).
“Our promotional participation levels continue to reduce year-on-year. Customers have told us that multi-buy promotions do not meet their shopping needs today. They are often viewed as confusing, create storage challenges and unnecessary waste,” he continued.
“In response to this, we recently announced that we will be phasing out the vast majority of our multi-buy promotions across grocery products by August this year. We will continue to simplify our trading strategy in favour of lower regular prices.”
“The market will remain competitive but we are confident that we will continue to outperform our major peers,' he said.
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