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Sainsbury’s has announced that it expects to hit the upper half of its full year guidance of between £670m and £700m despite seeing its statutory profit before tax drop 27% to £275m for the 28 weeks ended 16 September 2023.
The supermarket put the fall in profit before tax down to non-cash movements and one-off income from legal settlements in the prior year.
Alongside this, the company announced that its underlying profit before tax was £340m which was flat year-on-year.
Sainsbury’s retail operating profit was £485m, up 2% compared with the same period last year.
This was put down to strong volume-driven grocery profit growth and the continued delivery of Save to Invest cost saving benefits.
Grocery sales were up 10.1%, general merchandise sales were up 1.1% and statutory group sales were up 3.5%.
However, the company’s clothing sales were down 8.4% and its fuel sales dropped 19.6%.
Simon Roberts, chief executive, said: “Food is firmly back at the heart of Sainsbury’s. We’ve never been more competitive on price and our focus on value, innovation and service is giving more customers more reasons to shop with us.
“We know people are still finding things tough and we’re working harder than ever to reduce our costs, putting the money back into our customers’ pockets through lower prices on the products they buy most often. I’m pleased to say food inflation is coming down and we are passing savings on to customers. We’ve rolled out Nectar Prices to over 6,000 products and the vast majority of customers are now shopping with Nectar, saving over £450 million since April.”
He added: “We have extended increased colleague discounts and free food during shifts indefinitely and, thanks to the hard work across our entire team, we’re delivering leading customer service and availability. I want to thank all of my colleagues for their fantastic efforts.
“We’re ready to give customers at Sainsbury’s and Argos everything they want to have a brilliant Christmas. We’re helping everyone to treat themselves with fantastic value and more delicious new food than ever before. As we head into this key trading period, we are encouraged by our strong momentum and we remain fully focused on delivering for customers and shareholders.”
