UK supermarket Sainsbury’s has revealed its preliminary results for the 52 weeks ended 2nd March 2024, reporting record market share gains.
Sainsbury’s said it had achieved a group revenue of £32.7 billion, up 3.8% on the year. However, it reported a post-tax profit of £137 million, down 33.8% compared to 2022 rates.
Its retail underlying operating profit was £966 million, up 4.3%, with volume-driven grocery profit growth and “continued strong delivery of cost savings”. Sainsbury’s said its retail sales (excluding fuel) was up 6.8%, while it experienced grocery sales growth of 9.4%.
Simon Roberts, chief executive of J Sainsbury plc, said: “We said we’d put food back at the heart of Sainsbury’s and that’s what we’ve done. Our food business is firing on all cylinders. We have the best combination of value and quality in the market and that’s winning us customers from all our key competitors, driving consistent volume market share growth as more customers choose us for their weekly shop and all their special occasions.
“We’ve done that by relentlessly investing in price; £780 million over the past three years. We know it’s still tough out there for so many households and we’re doing all we can to save money right across our business to keep prices low – we have reduced 4,000 products over the last year alone.
“Nectar Prices has also been a game changer for customers, saving them £12 on a typical £80 shop. And we’re not compromising on quality: we’ve doubled our rate of innovation and Taste the Difference is performing especially well.”
Outlook for 2024/25
Sainsbury’s said it expects to see strong profit growth in the year ahead as it works to grow grocery volumes ahead of the market. It predicts a retail underlying operating profit of between £1,010 million and £1,060 million and a growth of between 5% and 10%.
It also said it expects to generate volume growth in its grocery category, with a sales benefit across the business from “more normal seasonal weather”.
Roberts concluded: “As we embark on our Next Level Sainsbury’s strategy, we’ll continue to make deliberate, balanced choices to support our customers, colleagues, communities and farmers. I want to say a big thank you to all our colleagues and suppliers for all their hard work in delivering another record year.”
