Sainsbury’s suffered a slide in both like-for-like sales and pre-tax profits in a year marked by the devaluation of the pound and fierce price competition between Britain’s retailers.
Like-for-like sales at its stores open for more than a year fell by 0.6 per cent in the 52 weeks to 11 March 2017, owing largely to food price deflation.
Pre-tax profits, meanwhile, were down 8.2 per cent from £548 million to £503m.
“This has been a pivotal year and we have made significant progress delivering and accelerating our strategy,”said Sainsbury’s CEO Mike Coupe.
However, rising costs have reduced profits this year and Coupe told the BBC that, with rising inflation, it is “difficult to predict” when prices might increase.
The retailer expects its costs to go on rising by two to three per cent over the next year, the BBC reported. This is largely down to the devaluation of the pound, making imported goods more expensive.
Despite these challenges, Coupe said: “Our food business remains resilient in a challenging market and we continue to innovate in quality and to invest in price.”
Part of the retailer’s strategy this year has been to remove multi-buy promotions and move to lower regular prices, with promotional participation decreasing by almost six per cent.
In addition, the supermarket invested in the quality and price of its core ‘by Sainsbury’s’ range, whose volume sales grew by two per cent.
