Sainsbury’s sales soared in its first quarter as the supermarket said it had been winning customers from competitors every month for 15 consecutive months.
In the 16 weeks to 22 June 2024, total sales grew 4.2% at the retailer, while grocery sales were even stronger, up 4.8% as chief executive Simon Roberts boasted of Sainsbury’s “market-beating grocery performance”.
It came as the grocer saw a second year of volume growth and is winning more volume from primary customers than all other full-choice grocers, which it said is driving basket size growth “significantly ahead of all competitors”.
During the first quarter, Sainsbury’s also had the biggest market share gains of any grocer with consistent net switching gains, it said.
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Roberts said: “We are laser focused on delivering the best combination of value and quality in the market and our customers are recognising that with 98% of big baskets including Nectar Prices or Aldi Price Match.”
The supermarket giant now has more than 650 products in its Aldi Price Match and offers Low Everyday Prices on around 1,000 items.
He added that innovation has also helped to bring in new shoppers as Sainsbury’s launched 400 new products during the period, almost half of which were Taste the Difference, which Roberts said “continues to outperform a strong premium market”.
The retailer’s online grocery participation also increased to 14%, while its OnDemand service has seen sales up more than 80%.
Despite the food business going “from strength to strength”, general merchandise and clothing sales were down 4.3% which it said reflected improvement in clothing trend offset by weaker seasonal general merchandise sales.
Looking ahead, Sainsbury’s maintained its forecast of full-year retail underlying profit hitting between £1.01bn and £1.06bn, up between 5% and 10% on last year.
