Sainsbury's upped the pressure on struggling rivals Tesco and Morrisons today with another upbeat set of results that leave it with the highest share of the grocery market in nearly 10 years.
With sales up 4% to £13.36 billion in the half year to September, chief executive Justin King is able to claim he is presently winning the intense supermarket battle for custom.
“We represent nearly all of the growth in the market,” he said. “We have the fastest level of growth of any of our competitors.”
Even excluding new store space, Sainsbury’s sales are still up 1.7%, better than rivals can boast, with Tesco still recovering from a profit warning and Morrisons lately conceding that sales are falling.
Sainsbury’s is still feeling a warm glow from its successful sponsorship of the London Paralympic Games during the summer.
King argues his customers have been “reassured that they don’t need to shop around”. He says customer behaviour has changed, probably permanently, in the face of tight household budgets. They now waste less food and cook at home more often.
Profit for the half year is up 5.4% to £373 million, allowing for a 6.7% increase in the interim divi to 4.8p.
Sainsbury’s has now enjoyed 31 consecutive quarters of sales growth and now has a market share of 16.7%.
Sainsbury’s said online sales grew by more than 20% and it opened 49 convenience stores during the period.
The shares have had a good run this year, but today slipped 8p to 339.2p.
