Sainsbury's Wins Market Share Over Christmas

• Winning share at Christmas for the fifth consecutive year as more customers choose Sainsbury's

Sainbury's has published a third quarter trading statement for the 16 weeks to 4 January 2025.

Simon Roberts, Chief Executive of J Sainsbury plc, said:  

"We have won grocery market share for the fifth consecutive Christmas, with more customers choosing Sainsbury's for their big shop. Driven by our leading combination of quality, value and service, we have achieved seven consecutive quarters of volume performance ahead of the market and further accelerated our two-year volume growth. 

"The strength of our customer service and operational performance stood us apart in delivering our biggest ever Christmas.  Customers shopped later than ever and we achieved our highest ever sales in the final days before Christmas. I would like to recognise and thank all of our colleagues who worked so hard to deliver record customer satisfaction and our suppliers who helped us deliver our best ever Christmas availability. 

"Customers trust Sainsbury's to deliver great quality food and drinks. Over half of big Christmas baskets contained a Taste the Difference product, helping Taste the Difference deliver sales growth of 16 per cent, outperforming all key competitors. Customers chose Sainsbury's for their big festive celebrations with party food sales up nearly 40 per cent and more than 200 bottles of fizz sold every minute in the key days ahead of Christmas, over one third of which were Taste the Difference. Customers are also recognising our consistently strong value more and more, helped by record numbers of customers shopping Nectar Prices, driving gains from competitors as we attract new big basket customers to Sainsbury's.  

"Our people are fundamental to achieving our Next Level Sainsbury's plan and we are pleased to announce that we will raise pay for our hourly-paid colleagues by five per cent in the year ahead, split into two separate increases to help manage a particularly tough cost inflation environment. We believe in rewarding our colleagues well for delivering leading service and productivity and we will be the best paying UK grocer from March." 

*Argos Christmas sales growth of 1.1% is shown for the 8 weeks to 4 January 2025 so that both years' periods include Black Friday trading. For the 6 weeks to 4 January 2025, Argos sales were up 10.2% 

2024/25 Outlook

• We expect to deliver full year Retail underlying operating profit in line with consensus and the midpoint of our £1,010-£1,060 million guidance range, representing growth of around seven per cent
  
  
• This reflects continued operating leverage from Sainsbury's grocery volume growth, strong growth in Nectar profit contribution and delivery of cost saving targets
  
  
• We now expect total Financial Services underlying operating profit to be around £30 million (previous guidance: between £15 million and £25 million)
  
  
• We continue to expect to generate Retail free cash flow of at least £500 million

Strategic Highlights

First choice for food: We have continued to deliver industry-leading customer service¹, consistently great value and outstanding quality, driving sustained grocery volume growth in stores and online and further market outperformance² against tough comparatives.

• General merchandise and clothing sales were broadly stable year on year. Clothing sales grew by 2.2%, outperforming the market and all supermarket competitors¹¹, reflecting significant improvements in range and availability. This was offset by lower general merchandise sales, as we accelerate our space reallocation programme and focus on full-price seasonal sales
  

Loyalty everyone loves: Our second Nectar Prices Christmas delivered outstanding value for customers and record Nectar sales participation¹². We continue to deliver strong growth in Nectar360 revenues as retail media income grows and we remain on track to deliver incremental profit of at least £100 million in the three years to FY26/27.

More Argos, more often: Continued improvements to our digital proposition, delivery offers, product and promotions delivered positive traffic trends and sales growth in the key Black Friday and Christmas weeks. However, this was more than offset by the impact on sales and gross margins of subdued customer spending outside these key periods and a highly promotional environment.

• Customer satisfaction scores have improved in key areas such as appealing promotions, variety of items, product availability and ease of using our website¹³, reflecting actions we have taken to extend the breadth of our range, enhance our digital experience and highlight great value. One in four people in the UK visited the Argos website over Black Friday weekend, a significant increase year on year
  
  
• Over the quarter, sales were strongest in technology, while the toy market was weak and customer demand in bigger ticket categories including furniture and larger consumer electronics remained subdued

Save and invest to win: In an environment where offsetting operating cost inflation is increasingly important, we continue to make good progress against our target to deliver £1 billion of cost savings by March 2027 through investing in our customer proposition, productivity and operations, whilst driving higher returns.

Source : Sainsbury's plc

Image : Sainsbury's plc

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