3rd Quarter Trading Statement

Sainsbury(J) PLC
12 January 2001

J Sainsbury plc - Third Quarter Trading Statement
12 weeks ended 6th January 2001

     
       
Recovery plan on track
Sainsbury's Supermarkets sales up 3.2%:  like-for-like sales up 0.7%
Shaw's like-for-like sales up 1.3%

Sir Peter Davis, group chief executive said:

'Our third quarter results in both the US and UK supermarkets are in line with
our expectations and are against tough comparatives with the millennium
Christmas last year.  In Sainsbury's supermarkets we had a record Christmas
week in which we beat all of our budget expectations and where our supply
chain coped admirably.  The emphasis we have given to fresh foods paid off and
we traded with good product availability throughout the Christmas period.

'For the third quarter our results are very much in line with expectations and
over the quarter as a whole we saw an increase in customer visits of 4.4%.  In
view of this and the improved performance at Shaw's I am happy to confirm that
we continue to be on course, as we said at our interims, to meet our aim of
stabilising underlying Group profit before tax* and e-commerce in the current
financial year.  

'We are, therefore, in the process of achieving two of our major short term
objectives in Sainsbury's supermarkets.  That of stopping the decline in
profitability and reversing the decline in customer numbers which are now
showing an encouraging improvement.  We are still in the early stages of our
three-year recovery programme and are making good progress in upgrading our
infrastructure.  Whilst the overall like-for-like sales are still only showing
modest improvement I am encouraged by good results from those stores in which
we have invested.  Stores upgraded during the year have shown a 7.1% uplift in
like-for-like sales.  During the quarter we extended 9 stores, refurbished 4
and are on track to complete 35 extensions and 17 refurbishments during this
financial year.  We are in the detailed planning stage of an accelerated
programme which will deliver next year a further 100-150 improved stores. 

'To achieve this accelerated plan we made some organisational changes just
before Christmas designed to drive the roll out of the store reinvigoration
programme and to give greater clarity and focus in the trading area.  We are
establishing three separate business units for fresh foods, grocery and
non-foods.  We have moved responsibility for our pharmacy and petrol business
alongside other non-foods to establish a third major trading area.  We
recognise that in our bigger stores we need to complement our focus on food
with an appropriate range of non-foods.  We are establishing format teams
within trading to give us greater flexibility to range and market stores to
their local communities.

'As we have said before, this is a three-year programme and I am pleased to
report that we are on track.  The sale of Homebase, which we announced on 22
December 2000, will ensure that the group can focus management and financial
resources on the recovery of our UK supermarkets business.'

* Before amortisation of goodwill, exceptional costs and non-operating items.



Sainsbury's Supermarkets

                                      Including Petrol      Excluding Petrol  
    
                                        Q3       YTD          Q3       YTD
                            
Like-for-like sales growth % *         0.7       1.9         0.4       0.8
                            
Net new space added %                  2.5       2.4         2.0       2.2
                            
Total sales growth %                   3.2       4.3         2.4       3.0


*Like-for-like sales growth adjusted
 for Easter %                          n/a       1.6         n/a       0.6
                            
Inflation was 1.0% in the quarter or 0.2% excluding petrol.                   
 
       
Homebase
            
                                                 Q3       YTD
                     
Like-for-like sales growth % *                  5.0       7.3
                     
Net new space added %                           0.7       1.8
                     
Total sales growth %                            5.7       9.1
                     
                     
* Like-for-like sales growth adjusted 
  for Easter %                                  n/a       5.4


Homebase's total sales growth was 5.7% including like-for-like sales growth of
5.0%.  Christmas trading was strong but the post Christmas Sale started slowly
due to adverse weather conditions across the country.


Shaw's
                     
                                                 Q3       YTD
                     
Like-for-like sales growth % *                  1.3       0.7
                     
Net new space added %                          -0.5       5.4
                     
Total sales growth %                            0.8       6.1
                     
                     
* Like-for-like sales growth adjusted 
  for Easter %                                  n/a       0.7
                     

Shaw's total sales increased by 0.8% in the third quarter with like-for-like
sales growth of 1.3%.   Shaw's remodelled and extended stores which include
the improved customer offer, coupled with improved distribution and
availability, have brought about this significant improvement over the second
quarter's 1.1% decline in like-for-like sales.    Shaw's loyalty card,
launched at the beginning of this quarter, has been extremely well received by
customers.

The acquisition of 18 Grand Union Stores is expected to complete sometime
during the fourth quarter. 


For enquires

Investor Relations:   Roger Matthews/Amanda Cobb - 020 7695 6215
Press:    Jan Shawe/Pip Wood 020 7695 6469/6127