Trading Statement

Sainsbury(J) PLC
13 January 2005







13 January 2005



J Sainsbury plc: Third Quarter Trading Statement for 12 weeks to 1 January 2005



Key Points

  • Quarter 3 total sales growth of 6.1 percent (2.7 percent excluding petrol)
  • Quarter 3 like-for-like sales up 2.4 percent  (-1.2 percent excluding
    petrol)
  • Like-for-like sales for 4 weeks to 1 January up 2.5 percent (-0.4 percent
    excluding petrol)
  • Improved product availability and customer service



Justin King, chief executive, said: 'Supermarket like-for-like sales growth for
this quarter was in line with quarter 2 and was supported by strong petrol
sales.  After a difficult November, there was an improving trend over the
Christmas and New Year period, which is encouraging given the tougher
comparatives for the same period last year.  This sales performance was in line
with our plans and was a good first step in delivering our sales led recovery.



'We were particularly pleased with the levels of availability and customer
service achieved over the Christmas period.  We are committed to making
continuous improvements to our operations and have put a number of actions in
place to ensure progress, particularly around product availability and store
labour. Our customers are starting to see the benefit.  The additional costs for
labour, depots and waste, which we announced on 19 October 2004, continued
throughout quarter 3 and will continue in the fourth quarter.



'The market was very competitive in the third quarter and early indications are
that the fourth quarter will be challenging with renewed pricing activity.  We
are continuing to invest in the customer offer, providing great quality products
at fair prices and have improved our competitive pricing position.  Since this
time last year, we have lowered the prices of 6,000 products and our overriding
objective is to deliver a competitive offer for our customers.'



Sainsbury's Bank delivered net income growth of around 20 percent in quarter 3,
which was below expectations in an increasingly competitive market.  In addition
a more conservative approach to provisioning has been adopted given the strong
growth in assets.



This week centrally based colleagues were updated on the proposals to introduce
a more effective and efficient central structure.  As previously announced it is
anticipated that 750 roles will be removed by April 2005.  Redeployment to store
based roles has been offered to all central colleagues who face redundancy.  The
recruitment of an extra 3,000 store colleagues has now largely been completed.



Notes

1.        Like-for-like sales for the comparative 4 weeks ending 3 January 2004
were 2.0 percent  (2.1 percent excluding petrol)

2.      Sales growth is detailed below:
2004/05                                                 Q1         Q2         H1         Q3
Sales growth including petrol (%)
Total                                                  2.3        4.4        3.5        6.1
Lfl                                                    1.0        1.8        1.5        2.4
Lfl inflation / (deflation)                            0.5       -0.5       -0.1       -0.8



Sales growth excluding petrol (%)
Total                                                  0.8        1.5        1.3        2.7
Lfl                                                   -0.6       -1.1       -0.9       -1.2
Lfl inflation / (deflation)                            0.2       -1.1       -0.5       -1.2

3.      Our fourth quarter pre-close trading statement will be made on 24 March
2005.



Enquiries:

Investor Relations:      [phone]     Media:   [phone]
Roger Matthews                                    Pip Wood
Lynda Ashton                                      Gillian Taylor


A conference call for analysts and investors will take place at 8:30GMT.



To listen to the 8:30 GMT Conference Call via the web:

Visit www.sainsburys.co.uk, select 'company info' and follow the instructions on
screen.  As an alternative you can access this information directly from
www.j-sainsbury.co.uk. The archive of the webcast will be available from 11:00
GMT.



To view the transcript of the Conference Call:

Go to www.j-sainsbury.co.uk during the week beginning 17 January 2005.




                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange