Sainsburys report half year loss of £290 million
13/11/2014
Supermarket Sainsburys have reported a half year loss of £290 million before tax and a fall in sales of 2.1%. They have also announced that they expect sales to be negative “for the next few years”.
Sainsburys believe the decline in sales is due to changes in shopping habits, with people shopping more frequently in a variety of different shops and online.
The supermarket confirmed that it has reined back plans for new stores across the country because of these figures, and about 40 supermarket developments across the UK will now not go ahead. They have also invested £150 million into price cuts to compete will discount supermarkets, such as Aldi and Lidl.
After the figures where announced, Sainsbury's shares were down over 5% at one point in morning trading before recovering to end at 266p, giving a 1% loss on the day.
Sainsbury's chief executive Mike Coupe said:
"We anticipate the next couple of years in our industry will be extremely challenging,
"The reality is we are seeing deflation for the first time in probably around 10 years,
"We are acknowledging we are not going to build out as many large supermarkets as we were anticipating, so that results in the fact that the land becomes less valuable,"
Sainsburys will continue to expand their none-food items , including clothing, cookware and homeware products. They will also open eight new supermarkets over the next three years, as well as redeveloping four of its existing stores.
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