Sainsbury's update follows strong results from Morrisons
Companies: J Sainsbury plc
The UK's second largest supermarket chain Sainsbury's (LON: SBRY) released a trading update on Wednesday for the 15 weeks to 7 January, reporting strong Christmas sales across the Group.
Sainsbury's beat its sales forecasts for the Christmas period, with total retail sales up 0.8% and like-for-like sales up 0.1%. Argos, the Group's catalogue retailer, reported total sales up 4.1% and LFL sales up 4%. In total, Group LFL sales were up 1% versus the previous year.
Today's update follows solid results released by Morrisons yesterday, while Tesco is also expected to report positive figures from its Christmas period. The UK's "big four" supermarkets have been squeezed in recent years as pressure at the budget and premium ends of the UK grocery market has increased.
READ: Morrisons reports best Christmas in seven years...
Group CEO Mike Coup said it had been a record Christmas with over 30m transactions and more than £1bn in sales across the group:
"We had a record Christmas week, with over 30 million customer transactions at Sainsbury's and over £1 billion of sales across the Group...
Our Groceries Online and Convenience channels performed well, achieving over nine and six per cent sales growth respectively and at Argos we saw record levels of online participation. Online sales made up 18 per cent of total Group sales in the quarter."
This week's updates from Sainsbury's, Tesco and Morrisons, show three of the big four supermarkets performing well in the face of an increasingly competitive marketplace:
"The market remains very competitive and the impact of the devaluation of sterling remains uncertain. However, we are well placed to navigate the external environment and remain focused on delivering our strategy."
Shares in Sainsbury's opened up 6% on Wednesday, with the firm trading on a forward P/E of 11.63.
