Supermarket giant Sainsburys in crisis
07/08/2014
Supermarket giant Sainsburys has suffered its first fall in Christmas sales for more than a decade, as they admit the rest of the financial year will “remain challenging” for them.
Sainsbury's said that like-for-like sales fell by 1.7% in the 14 weeks to January 3 excluding fuel. Total sales fell 0.4%, or 2.5% including fuel. Even though this is a better performance than experts predicted, it is the first drop in Sainsburys like for like sales over Christmas for more than a decade.
All four of the big UK supermarkets; Sainsburys, Asda, Morrisons and Tesco, are expected to announce a decline in Christmas sales as they faced tough competition from discount supermarkets Aldi and Lidl.
Sainsburys have now announced that they will be cutting the prices of 1,000 of its most popular products as part of a £150m programme announced in November. Asda have also made a similar promise, saying it would invest £300 million into cutting prices.
Sainsburys have now predicted that their performance will worsen over the next three months. Then, the lower fuel prices and improving economy will hopefully boost grocery sales.
Chief executive of Sainsburys, Mike Coupe, said:
"The outlook for the remainder of the financial year is set to remain challenging, with food price deflation likely to continue.
“It is undoubtedly the case that they [consumers] have more in their pocket, but are choosing to spend it on other things. I saw this morning that car sales are up.”
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