Sales fall at Sainsbury’s ‘stabilises’

SAINSBURY’S is expected to reveal falling sales on Wednesday as the supermarket sector grapples with the slowest growth for 11 years.

Justin King’s last set of trading figures as Sainsbury’s boss are expected to show lower sales for a second quarter in a row.

Brokers at Barclays and Citigroup both estimate the supermarket will post a 1.1 per cent fall in like-for-like sales figures for the 12 weeks to June 7.

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In the previous quarter Sainsbury’s saw its like-for-like sales fall 3.1 per cent, but Barclays warns against reading too much into the recovery because of the impact of Easter and other one-off comparables.

Sainsbury’s fourth quarter fall was the first in many years. However, the legacy that Mr King hands to commercial director Mike Coupe when he steps down next month is nine years of rising annual profits.

Analysts believe the figures will represent a good result for the business considering the price pressure on the big four supermarket retailers from German discounters such as Aldi and Lidl.

Citigroup said comparisons between the big four are becoming “a two-speed story” as the performance at both Asda and Sainsbury seems to have stabilised over the last two months.

This is in contrast to Tesco and Morrisons, which are losing market share.