Sainsbury’s has reported a slowdown in first quarter sales growth after experiencing what it described as a “challenging economic environment “.
The supermarket group revealed like-for-like sales excluding fuel rose 3.4 per cent in the 12 weeks to 14 June, compared with a 4.1 per cent increase in the previous three months.
Analysts had been expecting the company to announce a 3.5 per cent increase in sales, excluding new store openings and petrol revenues, matching growth reported by rival chain Tesco earlier this month.
Despite growing concerns over the the possibility of an economic slowdown affecting retailers, Sainsburys said results for the first quarter was as expected and came against strong comparatives last year, when first quarter sales rose 5.1 per cent.
The supermarket chain added that it was seeing “strong sales growth” in its expanded, lower-cost Basics range, while its online sales operation continued to grow, increasing by 40 per cent.
Like-for-like sales, including fuel sales, were up 7.3 per cent because of the rising price of petrol and diesel, while total sales for first quarter increased 8.1 per cent, and excluding fuel, climbed 4.5 per cent.
Justin King, Sainsbury’s chief executive, said: “Whilst we anticipate that the environment will remain challenging, we operate from a strong financial position and our expectations for the full year remain unchanged.”
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