Sainsbury’s has reported a “solid start to the year” despite suffering a 0.8% reduction in like-for-like retail sales in the 12 weeks to June 4, a period during which the supermarket giant said that food deflation had continued to impact on sales.
“Market conditions remain challenging,” said Sainsbury’s chief executive, Mike Coupe. “Food price deflation continues to impact our sales and pressures on pricing mean the market will remain competitive for the foreseeable future.
“However, we are confident that our strategy to be a trusted multi-channel, multi-product and services retailer is delivering and will enable us to continue to outperform our major peers.”
Despite the pressure on the business, Mr Coupe (pictured above) said it had been a solid start to 2016 with like-for-like transaction growth across all channels and total volume growth.
Sainbury’s 12-week report, published this morning, also stated that the chain had “simplified” its pricing strategy and was continuing to lower the prices of the everyday products that matter most to consumers.
“In the quarter we implemented our decision to remove Brand Match as part of our simpler trading strategy to offer lower regular prices,” it said.
“We have therefore lowered the prices of everyday products including our 1.35kg whole chicken from £3.50 to £2.95, our 12 free range woodland medium eggs from £2.00 to £1.75 and our 250g grated Cheddar cheese from £2.00 to £1.75.”