Trading Statement

Sainsbury(J) PLC
24 March 2005

24 March 2005

Fourth Quarter Trading Statement for 12 weeks to 26 March 2005

J Sainsbury plc today reported its fourth quarter pre-close trading statement,
comprising 11 weeks actual sales to 19 March 2005 and 1 week estimated sales to
26 March 2005.

Highlights

•        Total sales for quarter four up 7.2 percent (5.4 percent excluding
         petrol)
•        Like-for-like sales, Easter adjusted, for quarter four up 3.7 percent
         (1.7 percent excluding petrol)
•        Continuing improvement in the customer offer

Justin King, chief executive, said: 'We are pleased with the quarter four sales
numbers reported today which continue to show an improving trend.  We recovered
well from the Christmas and New Year peak trading period and had solid trading
over the seasonal events.

'Of particular note were Valentine's Day and Mother's Day which were well
executed in stores and helped drive sales over those periods.  In the last four
weeks we have had a strong contribution from Comic Relief selling over 4 million
red noses.  We estimate Comic Relief delivered an extra 0.3% like-for-like sales
in the quarter.  Overall £6.5 million was donated to the charity and we are
delighted by the support our colleagues and customers gave to this biennial
event.  Our Active Kids programme has also started strongly with over 18,000
schools registered in the scheme, which equates to around 60% of all UK schools.

'The encouraging signs reported in January have continued.  Our major focus on
availability is beginning to show results with both colleagues and customers
noticing the improvements in store.  The 3,000 extra store colleagues, who have
been in place this quarter, have helped us provide a much better service.
Customers are also enjoying the better value for money offered by our 6,000
lower prices.

'The competitive environment continues to be fierce but we are committed to
ensuring that our customer offer is not compromised while we continue with our
plans. In these circumstances we are particularly pleased that we have seen an
improving trend in sales.  The outlook remains competitive but we are confident
that by continuing to do a better job for our customers every day we will reach
our objective of market levels of sales growth by the end of 2005/06.

'We announced on 13 January 2005 the new structure for centrally based
colleagues.  This is now taking shape and around 600 people have already left
the business. At the same time we indicated that Sainsbury's Bank had
experienced a difficult quarter in an increasingly competitive market. This has
continued into the fourth quarter.

'Overall we are pleased with our progress during the quarter.  However we are
still only six months into implementing the plans we outlined last October.  We
recognise that there is a long way to go and must continue to be realistic about
the task in hand.  It will take time to deliver sustainable sales growth to
achieve our target of £2.5 billion extra sales by 2007/08.'

In a separate announcement today Sainsbury's outlined the conditional award of
ordinary shares under the J Sainsbury plc Share Plan 2005, as part of a
long-term incentive scheme for circa 1,100 managers throughout the business.
This share plan is subject to shareholder approval at the AGM on 13 July 2005.

Notes

1.        Sales growth is detailed below.  For quarter four, the numbers are
based on actual sales for 11 weeks and 1 week of estimated sales.  Like-for-like
sales have been Easter adjusted.  A similar adjustment has been used for the
second half and full year numbers. Total sales include two Easter periods in the
2004/05 financial year.

2004/05                                           Q1       Q2       H1       Q3       Q4       H2       FY
Sales growth including petrol (%)
Total                                            2.3      4.4      3.5      6.1      7.2      6.6      5.0
Like-for-like                                    1.0      1.8      1.5      2.4      3.7      3.0      2.2
Like-for-like inflation / (deflation)            0.5     -0.5     -0.1     -0.8     -1.2     -1.0     -0.5

Sales growth excluding petrol (%)
Total                                            0.8      1.5      1.3      2.7      5.4      4.0      2.6
Like-for-like                                   -0.6     -1.1     -0.9     -1.2      1.7      0.2     -0.4
Like-for-like inflation / (deflation)            0.2     -1.1     -0.5     -1.2     -1.6     -1.4     -1.0


2.      We will be holding a conference call for analysts and investors at 8:
30am.  To listen to the webcast of this call, we recommend that you register in
advance for this event. Please visit www.j-sainsbury.co.uk prior to the event
and follow the on-screen instructions.  Alternatively, please visit the website
by 8:15 GMT on the morning of the announcement, and follow the on-screen
instructions.  The archive of this event will be available from 12:00 GMT on the
day in the form of a delayed webcast.

3.      We will be providing an update on the implications of IFRS on 26 April
2005.

4.      Our Preliminary results for the year ended 26 March 2005 will be
announced on 18 May 2005.



Enquiries:

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








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