UK retailer Sainsbury’s has published its interim results for the 28 weeks ended 14th September 2024, reporting “strong grocery market share gains”.

Sainsbury’s sales were up 4.6%, with grocery sales growth of 5%. Like-for-like retail sales were up 3.4%, with a retail underlying operating profit of £503 million, up 3.7%.

The retailer reported “strong” Sainsbury’s and Nectar growth, as Sainsbury’s saw its contribution up 8.7% with operating leverage driven by “strong grocery volume growth”.

Its total underlying profit before tax was up 4.7% to reach £356 million, while total underlying profit after tax was £76 million, down by 51%.

Outlook

The supermarket said it “remained confident” of delivering strong profit growth in the full year, with “continued leverage” from Sainsbury’s grocery volume growth.

Sainsbury’s said it also expected to deliver retail underlying operating profit of between £1,010 million and £1,060 million, which was a growth of between 5% and 10%.

Customers choose premium brand products

Simon Roberts, chief executive of Sainsbury’s, said: “Our food business is going from strength to strength and we’re making the biggest market share gains in the industry, with continued strong volume growth. More and more customers are coming to us for their big food shop, recognising our winning combination of value, quality and service. 

“Reflecting our leading quality, more customers are choosing Taste the Difference, with sales up 18%, the strongest premium private label growth in the market. And with the biggest ever increase in customers’ value perception, we’re outperforming the market across the whole basket, particularly in core fresh food categories.

“Our grocery volume growth has delivered strong profit leverage at Sainsbury’s, partially offset by a tough first quarter at Argos. Argos trading has improved through the second quarter and in more recent weeks, so we continue to expect to deliver strong retail underlying operating profit growth and free cash flow generation for the full year.

“With strong momentum and increasing confidence in the strength of our grocery offer, we’re now investing to bring the best of Sainsbury’s to more people in more locations, including the recent acquisition of 11 Homebase and two Co-op stores.

“Our brilliant colleagues and suppliers are at the heart of everything we do and I want to thank them for all their hard work as we set ourselves up to deliver a fantastic Christmas for our customers. As we head into the festive season, there is real energy and excitement at Sainsbury’s and Argos and we’re expecting another strong performance.

“We remain very focused on delivering for our customers, communities and shareholders.”