Trading Statement

RNS Number : 9312T

Sainsbury(J) PLC

06 October 2010

 



6 October 2010

Second Quarter Trading Statement for 16 weeks to 2 October 2010

Continued market outperformance; growth plans progressing well

·    Total sales for second quarter up 6.6 per cent (5.2 per cent excluding fuel)⁽¹⁾

·    Like-for-like sales for second quarter up 4.3 per cent (2.9 per cent excluding fuel)⁽¹⁾

·    Total sales for first half up 7.0 per cent (4.8 per cent excluding fuel)⁽¹⁾

·    Like-for-like sales for first half up 4.4 per cent (2.0 per cent excluding fuel) ⁽¹⁾

·    Opened our largest stores in England, Scotland and Wales in last 10 days of quarter ⁽⁶⁾

Justin King, Chief Executive, said, "We've delivered another strong performance and grown market share⁽²⁾.  Excluding fuel, total sales were up 5.2 per cent, with like-for-like sales up 2.9 per cent and up 7.6 per cent on a two-year basis⁽³⁾.  New space has continued to perform ahead of our expectations delivering a further 2.3 per cent contribution to sales growth (excluding fuel).  Fuel price inflation has continued to act as a pressure on household budgets with total sales including fuel up 6.6 per cent.

Providing great value and great quality, fresh, tasty food is at the forefront of our brand.  We are particularly proud of our long-running commitment to sourcing British products in season - 100 per cent of our green salads and cucumbers were sourced from British farms in the quarter and we were the no. 1 retailer of British tomatoes and apricots, selling 80 per cent of the British apricot crop⁽⁴⁾.

Customer response to the relaunch of our £1 billion Taste the Difference brand in September has been fantastic.  We have spent the last year taste-testing, improving and developing new lines for our 1,000+ premium product range which offers the very best in quality and flavour.  Our new Taste the Difference Bistro range is already a real hit with customers - with slow-cooked lamb shanks and roasted pork belly proving to be early favourites.

Our complementary non-food offer continues to perform well, growing at three times the rate of food.  We opened our largest store at Crayford, Kent (100,000 sq ft) which showcases an even wider, more compelling non-food offer alongside a best in class food hall and incorporates world-leading environmental technologies.

We were delighted to be awarded Convenience Chain of the Year at the Retail Industry Awards 2010.  Through a combination of strong underlying growth and adding high quality new stores, our convenience business is achieving £1 billion annual sales.  Our online channels are progressing well, with sales up over 25 per cent, underpinned by continued record levels of service and availability.

Our space growth plans continue apace and we opened 7 supermarkets⁽⁵⁾, 12 convenience stores and completed 7 extensions - in total adding 460,000 sq ft of new space to our store estate.  Indeed, in the last 10 days of the quarter, we opened our largest store in England at Crayford, our largest store in Scotland at Darnley and our largest store in Wales at Newport⁽⁶⁾.  

We are pleased with our progress in the first half of the financial year.  We expect the consumer environment to remain challenging and will continue to work hard to deliver universal appeal through providing great value, great quality products to our customers.  Our accelerated growth strategy is providing access to Sainsbury's winning offer to ever more customers and we are well placed to make continued good progress."

Enquiries:
Investor Relations	Media
Anna Tee	Mark Rigby
[phone]	[phone]

 

Sainsbury's also released today its second quarter Corporate Responsibility update and this is available at www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/news

Notes

1.   All sales figures contained in this trading statement are stated including VAT and in accordance with IFRIC 13.

2.  Kantar total till roll data for 12 weeks to 5 September 2010.

3. Sainsbury's reported like-for-like sales up 4.6 per cent excluding fuel, including VAT for the 16 weeks to 3 October    2009. Therefore like-for-like sales excluding fuel on a two-year basis were up 7.6 per cent for the second quarter.

4.  Industry market share data covering relevant British season.

5.  Includes one replacement store.

6. Our Crayford store in Kent has benefited from a 63,000 sq ft extension taking it to 100,000 sq ft and relaunched on 29 September. Our store in Darnley, near Glasgow has benefited from a 46,000 sq ft extension taking it to 82,000 sq ft and relaunched on 29 September. Our new store in Newport on the former Crindau gasworks site replaces our previous store on Heidenham Drive and at 76,000 sq ft is 28,000 sq ft bigger than the original and opened on 22 September. In addition, our largest store in Northern Ireland at West Belfast (68,000 sq ft) celebrated its first birthday having opened during quarter 2 last year.

7. Certain statements made in this announcement are forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on     current expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any expected future events or results referred to in these forward-looking statements. Unless otherwise required by applicable law, regulation or accounting standard, we do not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

8. A conference call will take place at 8:45am. To listen to the audio webcast we recommend that you register in advance. To do so please visit www.j-sainsbury.co.uk prior to the event and follow the on-screen instructions.  To view the transcript of the conference call, go to www.j-sainsbury.co.uk and follow the on-screen instructions of the second quarter trading statement section.

9. Sainsbury's will announce 2010/11 Interim Results on 10 November 2010.

10.Sainsbury's 2010/11 Third Quarter Trading Statement will reflect the 14 weeks ending 8 January 2011 and its 2010/11    

     Fourth Quarter Trading Statement will reflect the 10 weeks ending 19 March 2011.

2010/11	Q1	Q2	H1
Sales growth including fuel (%)
Total	7.6	6.6	7.0
Like-for-like	4.6	4.3	4.4
Sales growth excluding fuel (%)
Total	4.4	5.2	4.8
Like-for-like	1.1	2.9	2.0

 

END

 

 

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