Sainsbury's reports 1% decline in LFL half-year sales

The supermarket chain and new owner of Home Retail Group has reported on trade for the  28 weeks to 24 September 2016.

Sainsbury's reported underlying Group sales (inc VAT) of £13,923m, up 2.1% on the previous year.  Like-for-like sales declined by 1%, however Sainsbury's stated that it had experienced total volume growth and like-for-like transaction growth across all channels.

Of Home Retail Group's performance, Sainsbury's said it was confident of delivering £160 million synergy target over three years and confirmed plans to place c.250 Argos digital stores in supermarkets over the next three years, and 30 Argos digital stores and 200 digital collection points in supermarkets by Christmas.

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Commenting on the Interim Results 2016, Mike Coupe, Group Chief Executive of J Sainsbury plc, said: “Two years ago we set out our strategy to make our customers’ lives easier, offering great quality and service at fair prices, serving our customers whenever and wherever they want. We have made good progress delivering this in challenging market conditions.

“We have invested in the quality of our products while reducing prices on everyday items, delivering volume growth and outperforming the market in customer service and availability. To meet growing demand for home delivery groceries in London, we opened a new online fulfilment centre. By Christmas we will open 30 Argos digital stores and create a further 30 Argos digital collection points in our supermarkets. These will form part of a rollout of 200 new digital collection points where customers can collect Tu clothing, eBay and DPD parcels.

“We achieved like-for-like transaction growth across all our channels and remain on track to deliver our three-year £500 million cost saving programme by the end of 2017/18. We will also deliver £500 million of cost savings over three years from 2018/19. We continue to benefit from a strong balance sheet, with net debt reduced by £485 million from March 2016 to £1.3 billion and we are committed to paying an affordable dividend, fixed at 2.0 times cover for the full year. Consistent with our policy to pay an interim dividend of 30 per cent of the previous full year dividend, our interim dividend will be 3.6 pence per share.”

Mike Coupe added: “The acquisition of HRG accelerates our strategy to give customers choice, convenience, speed and flexibility in when, where and how they shop. Food will always be at our heart and we are strengthening our Clothing, General Merchandise and Financial Services offers to realise the potential of the Group. The combination of our products, services, customer data and fast delivery networks gives us a strong platform for growth and enables us to deliver clear synergies.”

Image : 1000 Words / Shutterstock.com

Source : Insight DIY and Sainsbury's

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