REG - Sainsbury(J) PLC - Trading Statement

J SainsburyAnnouncement

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RNS Number : 2485O  Sainsbury(J) PLC  09 January 2026

9 January 2026

 

 

Third Quarter Trading Statement for the 16 weeks to 3 January 2026

Investment in customer offer delivers significant Christmas market share gains

 

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

"We have won grocery market share for the sixth consecutive Christmas period,
again delivering our winning combination of value, quality, service and
availability for customers. When we strengthened our profit guidance in
November, we said we planned to invest in the strength of our competitive
position through the most important trading period of the year. We expected
the market to become more competitive with customers spending more carefully
and we invested in balanced choices to offer great value for money,
outstanding quality and innovation and leading customer service and
availability, both in store and online.

 

"More customers switched to Sainsbury's, trusting us for both great value
essentials and premium Taste the Difference products in their big Christmas
shop and we were the only major grocer to grow items in the basket. We gave
customers great value on a bigger range of products this year and more
customers benefited from personalised Your Nectar Prices, available to every
supermarket shopper for the first time. Fresh food sales grew by 8% and Taste
the Difference was the fastest growing Premium Own Label brand in the market,
with our best ever ranges of Christmas innovation driving Taste the Difference
Fresh sales growth of 15%.

 

"My huge thanks go to all of our colleagues and suppliers - the strength of
our availability, customer service and operational performance stood us apart
in delivering our biggest ever Christmas. The entire team's hard work, care
and commitment meant we were there for customers when it mattered most. We
have real confidence in our momentum as we head into the final quarter and
remain focused on helping our customers get great value for money and
delivering for all our stakeholders."

 

  Sales Performance (YoY)                 Q3 - 16 weeks to 3 January 2026  Christmas - 6 weeks to 3 January 2026
 Sainsbury's                              4.9%                             4.6%
       Grocery                            5.4%                             5.1%
       General Merchandise + Clothing     (1.1)%                           (1.0)%
 Argos                                    (1.0)%                           (2.2)%
 Total Retail (exc. fuel)                 3.9%                             3.3%
 Like-for-like sales (exc. fuel)          3.4%

 

2025/26 Outlook

We have made balanced choices to invest and sustain the strength of our
competitive position through the most important trading period of the year.
These investments in value, quality and service have delivered further strong
grocery trading momentum and market share gains and, despite weaker general
merchandise market conditions, we continue to expect to deliver Retail
underlying operating profit of more than £1 billion.

 

We now expect to deliver Retail free cash flow of more than £550 million
(previous guidance: more than £500 million), reflecting strong working
capital performance. We continue to expect to return more than £800 million
of cash to shareholders this financial year through ordinary dividends, a
£250 million special dividend and a £250 million share buyback.

 

Strategic Highlights

First choice for food: The continued strength of our performance over the
third quarter is a result of the investments we have made in the first two
years of our Next Level plan. Through strengthening our operations and
technology, investing in our stores, building stronger relationships with
supplier partners and making balanced choices to invest in the areas that
matter most to customers, we are delivering a winning combination of value,
quality, availability and service.

·      The consistent strength of our value proposition through the
combination of Aldi Price Match, Nectar Prices and personalised Your Nectar
Prices is really resonating with customers, driving higher loyalty and bigger
trolley shops(1). This was particularly evident during the peak Christmas
week, when we sold 20 per cent more turkeys than last year as more customers
chose Sainsbury's for their big Christmas shop(2)

·      Our Fresh food quality and innovation set us apart. Fresh food
sales increased 8 per cent during the quarter. Building on high growth last
year, Taste the Difference Fresh food sales grew 15 per cent and Taste the
Difference was the fastest growing Premium Own Label in the market(3). We
launched more than 260 new Taste the Difference products during the quarter,
with customers particularly enjoying Mini Wagyu Cheeseburgers and Crispy
Chicken Bao Buns in our Taste the Difference Party Food range as well as our
Cherry & Amaretto Panettone and Chocolate and Caramelised Biscuit Polar
Peak festive desserts

·      Our strong operational performance ensured that we were
well-placed to deliver for customers however they wanted to shop with us,
driving higher customer satisfaction scores across Supermarkets, Convenience
and Online(4)

·      Groceries Online(5) sales increased 14 per cent over the quarter,
with a significant contribution from OnDemand sales growth, a strong increase
in Groceries Online orders and basket size and a big step forward in customer
satisfaction in Groceries Online availability(6)

·      We achieved a record-breaking performance in Convenience, with
particularly strong growth in Fresh categories as customers shopped with us
for last minute-purchases and essentials on Christmas Eve, Boxing Day and New
Year's Eve

·      The investments we are making to grow our food footprint through
new store openings and space reallocation are bringing a wider range of food
products to customers in key locations and are contributing to overall market
share gains

·      Despite softer demand and milder weather, Tu clothing achieved a
strong performance within a weak market and delivered an exceptional
performance in Christmas categories, including record sales of Christmas
pyjamas. Our volume growth outperformed the clothing market by 10 percentage
points(7), reflecting a step up in style and quality perceptions(8) and
improved availability both in-store and online

·      We believe everyone should have access to good food and we are
helping tackle food insecurity across the UK through our Nourish the Nation
programme with Comic Relief. This quarter, we launched our Meals Make Memories
campaign and supported the Department for Education's free breakfast club
programme as well as raising over £3.9m for Comic Relief during the festive
period. This includes donating every penny from the sales of by Sainsbury's
and Free From classic mince pies in December to provide over 5 million meals
to families this Winter

 

Loyalty everyone loves: Our personalised, rewarding and integrated Nectar
loyalty scheme gives customers great value and supports our world class retail
media offering, Nectar360. During the festive period, we connected 800 brands
with our customers, a strong increase year-on-year as more clients and
agencies use Nectar360 to deliver tailored and targeted marketing campaigns
instore and online.

·      Customers saved more money than ever before through our unique
combination of personalised Your Nectar Prices and Nectar Prices, saving an
average of £27 on their big Christmas shop(9) and we achieved record Nectar
participation(10) in the key Christmas weeks. Customers also took the
opportunity to cash in their Nectar Points balances for even greater Christmas
savings with around two million shoppers redeeming points worth an average of
£25 during December

·      We remain ahead of our plan to deliver at least £100 million
incremental profit over the three years to March 2027 from our Nectar360
business, with exceptionally positive feedback from clients and agencies who
are starting to use our new retail media platform Pollen. We are also stepping
up our instore digital media capability and plan to double the number of
instore screens by the end of next financial year. In addition, we are
creating new ways for brands to connect with customers through our SmartShop
handsets

·      We continue to grow the Nectar coalition and are discussing
further partnerships for the year ahead. During the third quarter, we
announced an exciting new partnership with Deliveroo, enabling customers to
earn Nectar points when they shop with Sainsbury's through the Deliveroo app
and we also introduced the Nectar Arcade feature on the Nectar app

 

More Argos, more often: The Argos transformation plan continues to make
progress, delivering volume growth across the whole quarter despite
significant headwinds from online traffic trends, a tough and promotional
general merchandise market and weak consumer confidence.

·      We continue to invest in strategic initiatives to strengthen our
customer offer and increase frequency and basket size, with sales of Supplier
Direct Fulfilled products up 24 per cent, Argos App unique visitor numbers up
33 per cent year on year and improved brand perceptions across key metrics
including value, quality and overall satisfaction(11)

·      Volume growth in the third quarter was more than offset by the
impact of lower average selling price across the market. This was driven by
subdued spending on higher ticket items such as furniture, heavy promotional
activity and a weak gaming market. We gained share(12) and grew sales in
Homewares, Electricals and Toys, with Habitat sales up 6 per cent and sales
from our relaunched Chad Valley range up 7 per cent, ahead of our expectations

·      Tight stock control has resulted in a clean stock position at the
end of the peak period

 

Save and invest to win: We continue to make good progress against our target
to deliver £1 billion of cost savings by March 2027, helping offset
significant operating cost inflation. Our capital investments in technology
and infrastructure are delivering efficiency gains and a stronger customer
offer.

·      Two years into our Next Level strategy, investments in technology
are delivering significant improvements in operational efficiency and
effectiveness across product availability, supply chain and checkouts. This is
contributing to consistent delivery of strong customer service, particularly
during peak periods

·      We delivered our strongest ever end-to-end trading plan over
Christmas, working collaboratively with suppliers to deliver our best ever
food availability right up to Christmas Eve, with smooth stock flow, very low
wastage and a record New Year's Eve performance. Combined with more shelf
space for food products through our space reallocation work, this helped bring
more products to more customers at the right time

 

Sales performance (exc. VAT)

 

 Like-for-like sales performance  2024/25                                     2025/26
                                        Q1          Q2          Q3            Q4    Q1          Q2            Q
                                                                                                              3
 Like-for-like sales (exc. fuel)  2.9%        4.3%        2.9%        4.0%    4.6%        4.3%        3.4%
 Like-for-like sales (inc. fuel)  2.6%        2.2%        0.3%        2.6%    2.2%        2.8%        2.9%

 Total sales performance (%)      2024/25                                     2025/26
                                        Q1          Q2          Q3            Q4    Q1          Q2            Q
                                                                                                              3
 Sainsbury's                      4.3%        5.2%        3.8%        4.2%    4.9%        5.5%        4.9%
   Grocery                        4.9%        5.5%        4.2%        4.1%    5.0%        5.7%        5.4%
   GM (Sainsbury's) + Clothing    (4.5)%      2.0%        (0.4)%      6.4%    4.2%        2.1%        (1.1)%
 Argos                            (7.7)%      (1.4)%      (1.4)%      1.9%    4.0%        0.1%        (1.0)%
 Total Retail (exc. fuel)         2.6%        4.3%        2.9%        3.9%    4.8%        4.8%        3.9%
 Fuel(13)                         0.4%        (10.6)%     (17.4)%     (6.8)%  (13.6)%     (7.8)%      (1.2)%
 Total Retail (inc. fuel)         2.3%        2.2%        0.3%        2.5%    2.4%        3.2%        3.4%

 Total sales performance (£m)     2024/25                                     2025/26
                                        Q1          Q2          Q3            Q4    Q1          Q2            Q
                                                                                                              3
 Sainsbury's                      7,431       5,497       8,040       3,690   7,797       5,799       8,431
   Grocery                        6,995       5,155       7,426       3,484   7,342       5,450       7,824
   GM (Sainsbury's) + Clothing    436         342         614         206     455         349         607
 Argos                            1,077       860         1,611       548     1,120       861         1,595
 Total Retail (exc. fuel)         8,508       6,357       9,651       4,238   8,917       6,660       10,026
 Fuel(13)                         1,291       894         1,116       575     1,115       824         1,103
 Total Retail (inc. fuel)         9,799       7,251       10,767      4,813   10,032      7,484       11,128

 

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 (GMT). This will
be available to view on our website at the following link:

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

 

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 Preliminary Results for the 52 weeks ending 28
February 2026 on 23 April 2026.

 

Enquiries

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

LEI: 213800VGZAAJIKJ9Y484

( )

(Quote:)

(Six consecutive Christmas periods of grocery market share gains - Worldpanel
by Numerator Panel (Kantar), City Read, Volume growth YoY, Q3 20/21 to Q3
25/26, 16 weeks to 28 December 2025)

(More customers switched to Sainsbury's - Worldpanel by Numerator Panel
(Kantar), Total Fresh & Grocery exc Kiosk, Net Volume Switching
Sainsbury's, 16 weeks to 28 December 2025)

(1) (Worldpanel by Numerator Panel (Kantar), Total FMCG (exc. Kiosk and
Tobacco), Growth in average items per basket YoY, 16 weeks to 28 December
2025)

(2) (Worldpanel by Numerator Panel (Kantar), Total FMCG (exc. Kiosk and
Tobacco), Shopper number growth YoY, 16 weeks to 28 December 2025)

(3) (Worldpanel by Numerator Panel (Kantar), Total Fresh & Grocery exc.
Kiosk, Premium Own Label tier (excl. Premium Plus tier), Value growth YoY, 16
weeks to 28 December 2025)

(4) (CSAT Competitor Benchmarking data - Overall Supermarket / Online /
Convenience Satisfaction, Q3 25/26 YoY)

(5) (Grocery Online includes sales through Sainsburys.co.uk and sales through
OnDemand channels)

(6) (CSAT Competitor Benchmarking data - Groceries Online Availability, Q3
25/26 YoY)

(7) (Worldpanel Fashion Panel (Kantar), Total Clothing, Footwear and
Accessories YoY retailer volume growth differential vs the market, 12 weeks to
7th December 2025)

(8) (Style perception: Basis brand tracking, November 2025 vs November 2024;
Quality perception: YouGov brand tracking, November 2025 vs November 2024)

(9) (Average saving on an £80+ shop)

(10) (Nectar participation - Supermarkets and Groceries Online)

(11) (YouGov Brand Index - brand health metrics score YoY, Q3 25/26)

(12) (Homewares - Global Data Homeware Tracker, Value market share gains YoY,
October - December 2025 + Electricals - GFK Electricals market share, 15 weeks
to 27th December. Household Electricals, Computers, TVs, Mobiles/Tablets &
Tech Wearables + Toys - BRC, Value market share gains YoY, Q3 25/26)

(13) (Fuel sales represent sales of fuel from our Petrol Filling Stations
(PFS) and sales from our Ultra Rapid Electric Vehicle charging business, Smart
Charge)

 

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