Sales figures at Sainsbury’s have tumbled once again as a result of what its boss describes as a “highly competitive pricing backdrop”.
On Thursday, the supermarket published its first quarter trading statement for the 12 weeks to 6 June 2015, reporting that total retail sales for the period were down 2.3%, including fuel.
However like-for-like retail sales were off 3.7%, including fuel.
Mike Coupe, chief executive at the group asserted that trading conditions were still being hit “by strong levels of food deflation and a highly competitive pricing backdrop”.
He added: “These pressures, including the effect of our own targeted price investment, have led to a fall in like-for-like sales for the quarter. We outlined in our Strategic Review in November some of the key actions we would be taking to remain competitive in this environment and are encouraged by some of the early trends that we are seeing in our key trading and operational metrics.”
However volume and transactions continued to grow at the FTSE 100 firm while its online clothing offer also remains popular.
The UK’s major supermarkets have been suffering in recent times as a result of the rise in popularity of the so-called hard discounters including Aldi and Lidl.
Coupe added: “Despite the challenging market conditions, we are confident that we are building on strong foundations and making good progress with our strategy. We continue to invest in our broad range of products and services and our multiple channels to market. These areas represent strong future growth opportunities and contribute towards our resilience in the current trading environment.”
Despite the fall in sales, shares in the group rose by 4%, or 11p, in early trading to 260p.
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