Sainsbury’s Reports Slow Sales Growth

There was like-for-like sales for the full year up 4.3 per cent excluding fuel, with gross space growth of 6.8 per cent in full year.

24 Mar 2010 --- UK retailer Sainsbury’s has reported that total sales for the fourth quarter were up 4.4 per cent excluding fuel. Like-for-like sales for fourth quarter up 1.7 per cent excluding fuel. The retailer reported over 19 million average weekly customer transactions, up one million year on year. There was like-for-like sales for the full year up 4.3 per cent excluding fuel, with gross space growth of 6.8 per cent in full year.

Justin King, Chief Executive, said, "We've delivered another good performance in line with our expectations on top of strong growth last year. Excluding fuel, total sales were up 4.4 per cent with like-for-like sales up 1.7 per cent and up 8.0 per cent on a two year basis.  Fuel price inflation has driven further growth with like-for-like sales including fuel up 4.8 per cent.  We are now serving over 19 million customers on average per week, up one million on last year.”

“This completes a strong year in which we have accelerated our growth strategy and increased total sales excluding fuel by 6.3 per cent, with like-for-like sales, excluding fuel up 4.3 per cent. This has been underpinned by our focus on operational excellence which has delivered further improvements in customer service and availability.”

In the quarter Sainsbury’s successfully relaunched ‘Freefrom' and ‘Be Good To Yourself' and were confirmed as the world's largest retailer of Fairtrade products by value.