REG - Sainsbury(J) PLC - Trading Statement

J SainsburyAnnouncement

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RNS Number : 0842P  Sainsbury(J) PLC  01 July 2025

1 July 2025

 
J Sainsbury plc

 

 

First Quarter Trading Statement for the 16 weeks to 21 June 2025

Consistently great value delivers highest market share since 2016

 

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

 

"Our winning combination of great value, outstanding quality, excellent
availability and leading customer service has driven further share gains,
reaching our highest market share in almost a decade. We're delivering our
strongest ever customer offer and many more people are choosing us for their
main grocery shop.

 

"We know how important it is that we provide consistently great value and we
have built further on our strong competitive position, improving our prices
against all key competitors year-on-year. We're now offering even more
opportunities for customers to save on the items they buy most often through
the biggest Aldi Price Match commitment in the market, covering around 800
everyday essentials. As a result, our Value for Money customer satisfaction
scores are the highest they have ever been.

 

"I would like to thank our brilliant colleagues, suppliers and farmers for
their care and commitment as we work together to deliver for our customers and
communities. We have great momentum, growing faster than the market for three
consecutive years and we are well set to deliver another strong performance
over the summer. Boosted by a sunny spring, we're already off to a great start
with Taste the Difference fresh food sales up 20 per cent as customers enjoy
our delicious new Deli and Picnic ranges, which are perfect for sharing with
friends and family."

 

  Sales Performance (YoY)                   Q1 - 16 weeks to 21 June 2025
 Sainsbury's                                4.9%
       Grocery                              5.0%
       General Merchandise + Clothing       4.2%
 Argos                                      4.4%
 Total Retail (exc. fuel)                   4.9%
 Like-for-like sales (exc. fuel)            4.7%

 

2025/26 Outlook

·      We are committed to sustaining our strong competitive position in
the year ahead and expect to continue to grow grocery volumes ahead of the
market

·      We continue to expect to deliver Retail underlying operating
profit of around £1 billion and Retail free cash flow of more than £500
million

·      Profit delivery will be supported by continued growth in Nectar
profit contribution and industry-leading cost saving delivery and will be
weighted more towards the second half versus last year

 

Strategic Highlights

 

First choice for food: More customers are choosing Sainsbury's as their first
choice for food(1), with 30 successive periods of growth in primary customer
numbers(2) and market outperformance over Easter(3). We have gained market
share for the third consecutive year(4), reflecting strong consistent delivery
of value, quality and service and excellent availability.

·      Our value proposition is stronger than ever and we've improved
our price position against all key competitors year-on-year(5). Value for
Money customer satisfaction scores are the highest they have ever been(6),
supported by the growth of our Aldi Price Match campaign to around 800
products and Nectar Prices offers available on over 9,000 products

·      We are delivering outstanding quality and innovation at
affordable prices, with Taste the Difference sales up 18 per cent and
continued outperformance versus the market(7). We launched more than 450 new
products in the first quarter, with more than 250 of these in Taste the
Difference. Our exciting new Taste the Difference range of Deli and Picnic
items has performed well ahead of expectations as customers enjoy sharing
plates such as Spanish Jamón Croquetas with Aioli & Pecorino and Pugliese
Burrata with Sun-soaked Tomatoes with friends and family at home while
enjoying the warmer weather

·      We have delivered strong sales growth and improved customer
service across Supermarkets, Convenience and Online, with standout customer
satisfaction scores in Availability of Products, Appealing Promotions and
Value for Money(8)

·      Convenience sales grew by six per cent, with our highest ever
customer satisfaction scores reflecting a positive customer response to our
Aldi Price Match commitment(9). We continue to invest to better serve distinct
customer missions, increasing the amount of space allocated to fresh food and
enhancing our food to go offer

·      Groceries Online sales increased six per cent year-on-year,
reflecting growth in both orders and basket size as well as improved customer
satisfaction scores(10), supported by continued very strong OnDemand sales
growth

·      We are making good progress with our 'More for More' plan to
rebalance space in our supermarkets towards Food, completing investments in 21
stores in the quarter. We continue to expect benefits to build through the
second half of the financial year. We additionally opened seven new
convenience stores and two new supermarkets in the quarter, both of which are
performing ahead of expectations

·      We are proud to have partnered with three other major
supermarkets, as part of the Alliance Food Sourcing coalition, to launch the
Let's make a meal of it campaign - bringing together the retail industry to
help tackle food poverty by working to identify and secure more sources of
surplus food and raise money for FareShare

·      Tu Clothing sales grew eight per cent, outperforming the
market(11), driven by improved design and strong availability. Womenswear
delivered the biggest growth, up 13 per cent, with strong seasonal performance
in the warmer weather

 

Loyalty everyone loves: Customers love the benefits of our Nectar loyalty
programme and we are focused on further enhancing our unique personalisation
capabilities to optimise value delivery for Sainsbury's customers, driving
continued improvements in value perception scores(6). As we advance this
technology, we're leveraging these skills across the Nectar coalition of
brands and are investing at scale to accelerate our Nectar360 retail media
business.

·      Our popular Nectar Prices are now available on over 9,000
products, driving consistently high Nectar participation as more and more
customers use Nectar when they shop with us. We're leading the way in
personalisation, with more than one million customers already accessing
personalised savings each week through Your Nectar Prices, currently available
on SmartShop and Online. We are going further to scale this offer, making it
even easier for customers to access the offers tailored to them and are
working to generate up to 500 million personalised offers each week

·      We will launch of our new unified retail media platform Nectar360
Pollen later this year. Revolutionising how more than 900 brands and agencies
run omnichannel retail media campaigns, the platform will be a one-stop shop
to access the full potential of our retail media network. Designed in-house
and powered by customer insight and AI, the platform will be the most advanced
of its kind in the UK when it launches later this year. Our Nectar360 clients
will soon be able to plan, book and activate their retail media investment
across Sainsbury's and Argos through one platform, unlocking more impactful
campaigns driven by market-leading measurement capabilities

·      Setting a new standard for transparency, consistency and
accountability, Nectar360 is on track to become one of the first two
businesses to be certified under IAB Europe's new Retail Media Certification
programme

 

More Argos, more often: Argos sales grew ahead of a subdued, highly
competitive and deflationary general merchandise market(12), helped by warm
and dry weather against a weak comparative. We are making good progress with
our More Argos, more often strategy, focused on driving frequency of visit and
basket size, with strong customer traffic and volume growth in the first
quarter.

·      Improvements to customers' digital journeys are delivering a more
tailored and personalised experience on our website and on our app, driving an
increase in app participation and strong online growth. This has been
partially offset by instore sales declines as we near the end of the impact of
our store closure programme

·      Customers continue to spend carefully and we have strengthened
our value proposition across key categories and best sellers. Higher value
perception scores(13) have additionally been boosted by the popular Big Red
promotional events and we have launched a new marketing campaign, The A List,
to showcase our premium brands and trending products

·      Product availability continues to improve and we have further
expanded our stockless ranges, with new supplier direct fulfilled products
from the likes of Bosch, Decathlon and Hisense. Alongside this, we are making
good progress in delivering sharper product curation through consolidating our
27 own brands to seven refreshed and distinctive brands

·      Investment in the customer proposition is being supported by
transformation activity focused on reducing fulfilment costs, tighter stock
management and further optimisation of our store operating model

 

Save and invest to win: We are confident in delivering £1 billion of cost
savings by March 2027, investing in high-returning activity across the
customer proposition, productivity, operations and technology stability and
resilience.

·      Self-service participation has continued to grow and we delivered
record SmartShop participation in the quarter, delivering further cost
savings. We are making good progress with the next phase of our front-end
transformation, investing to improve the functionality of SmartShop handsets,
including trials of Pay on Handset and product finding functionality

·      We have made good progress implementing the propositional changes
in supermarkets that we announced in January. This is delivering improvements
in product quality and customer proposition alongside cost savings and
conversion of backwall food service space into additional food selling area

·      We are already benefiting from recent changes to management
structures in our store support centres, reducing cost and driving faster
decision making and delivery

 

Sales performance (exc. VAT)

Please note that all sales performance numbers in the tables below have been
re-presented on an exclusive of VAT basis. Previously, sales performance had
been disclosed on an inclusive of VAT basis.

 Like-for-like sales performance  2024/25                                     2025/26
                                  Q1      Q2          Q3          Q4          Q1
 Like-for-like sales (exc. fuel)  2.9%    4.3%        2.9%        4.0%        4.7%
 Like-for-like sales (inc. fuel)  2.6%    2.2%        0.3%        2.6%        2.2%

 Total sales performance (%)      2024/25                                     2025/26
                                  Q1      Q2          Q3          Q4          Q1
 Sainsbury's                      4.3%    5.2%        3.8%        4.2%        4.9%
   Grocery                        4.9%    5.5%        4.2%        4.1%        5.0%
   GM (Sainsbury's) + Clothing    (4.5)%  2.0%        (0.4)%      6.4%        4.2%
 Argos                            (7.7)%  (1.4)%      (1.4)%      1.9%        4.4%
 Total Retail (exc. fuel)         2.6%    4.3%        2.9%        3.9%        4.9%
 Fuel                             0.4%    (10.6)%     (17.4)%     (6.8)%      (13.6)%
 Total Retail (inc. fuel)         2.3%    2.2%        0.3%        2.5%        2.4%

 Total sales performance (£m)     2024/25                                     2025/26
                                  Q1      Q2          Q3          Q4          Q1
 Sainsbury's                      7,430   5,497       8,040       3,690       7,797
   Grocery                        6,994   5,155       7,426       3,484       7,342
   GM (Sainsbury's) + Clothing    437     342         614         206         455
 Argos                            1,077   860         1,611       548         1,125
 Total Retail (exc. fuel)         8,507   6,357       9,651       4,238       8,922
 Fuel                             1,291   894         1,117       575         1,114
 Total Retail (inc. fuel)         9,798   7,251       10,768      4,813       10,037

 

 

Notes

Certain statements made in this announcement are forward-looking statements.
Such statements are based on current

expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could
cause actual events or results to differ

materially from any expected future events or results referred to in these
forward-looking statements. Unless otherwise

required by applicable law, regulation or accounting standard, we do not
undertake any obligation to update or revise

any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future
developments or otherwise.

 

A webcast presentation and live Q&A will be held at 9:15 (BST). This will
be available to view on our website at the following link:

https://sainsburys-2025-26-first-quarter-trading-statement.open-exchange.net/
(https://sainsburys-2025-26-first-quarter-trading-statement.open-exchange.net/)

 

A recorded copy of the Q&A call and a transcript will be available at
www.about.sainsburys.co.uk/investors/results-reports-and-presentations
(http://www.about.sainsburys.co.uk/investors/results-reports-and-presentations)
following the event.

 

Sainsbury's will announce its Interim Results for the 28 weeks ending 13
September 2025 on 6 November 2025.

 

Enquiries

  Investor Relations      Media
  James Collins           Rebecca Reilly
  +44 (0) 7801 813 074    +44 (0) 20 7695 7295

Title Worldpanel by Numerator Panel (Kantar), City Read. Total Grocery, Volume
market share - From Q1 16/17 to Q1 25/26, 16 weeks to 15 June 2025

(1) Worldpanel by Numerator Continuous Panel (Kantar), Total Fresh &
Grocery exc. Kiosk. Primary shopper numbers growth YoY. 16 weeks to 15 June
2025 vs 16 weeks to 16 June 2024. Primary shopper is defined as any shopper
who bought 40% of more of their groceries at particular retailer within the
time period indicated

2 Worldpanel by Numerator Continuous Panel (Kantar), Total FMCG exc. Kiosk
& Tobacco. Primary shopper numbers YoY growth, 12-week rolling, trended by
period to 15 June 2025

3 Worldpanel by Numerator Panel (Kantar), Total FMCG exc. Kiosk & Tobacco.
Volume growth vs the Market: 5 weeks to 27 April 2025 vs 5 weeks to 7 April
2024

4 Worldpanel by Numerator Panel (Kantar), Total FMCG exc. Kiosk & Tobacco.
Volume market share gains: 16 weeks to 15 June 2025, 16 weeks to 16 June 2024
and 16 weeks to 18 June 2023

5 Value Reality. Latest 4-week average Value Index data 25/26 vs 24/25 (w/c 26
May 2025 to w/c 16 June 2025, vs w/c 27 May 2024 to w/c 17 June 2024). Acuity,
Internal modelling

6 Lettuce Know. Supermarket Value for Money customer satisfaction scores.
Highest quarterly score since programme began in Q1 22/23

7 Worldpanel by Numerator Panel (Kantar), Total FMCG exc. Kiosk & Tobacco.
Premium Own Label, sales value growth YoY: 16 weeks to 15 June 2025

8 Lettuce Know. Customer satisfaction scores. Q1 25/26 vs Q1 24/25

9 Lettuce Know. Convenience customer satisfaction scores. Highest quarterly
scores since programme began in Q1 22/23

(10) Lettuce Know. Groceries Online customer satisfaction scores in "Overall
Satisfaction". Q1 25/26 vs Q1 24/25

(11) Worldpanel by Numerator Continuous Panel (Kantar), Total Clothing,
Footwear and Accessories. Volume growth, 12 weeks to 25 May 2025

(12) BRC, Total NFNC exc. H&B & Stationary. Growth vs the Market: 16
weeks to 21 June 2025

(13) Argos CSAT survey - Value for Money - Q1 25/26 vs Q1 24/25

 

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