12/04/2002

Sainsbury’s still behind Tesco’s after strong quarter

Despite a strong showing over the Easter holidays, Sainsbury's have been unable to overtake Tesco's as the UK's biggest supermarket group.

Like-for-like sales rose 6.8% to March 30, and excluding petrol and excluding Easter like-for-like sales gained 6% overall, which is 0.2% down on rival Tesco's. The rise in sales was welcomed by the market and share prices upped from 360p to 420p since Christmas.

However, Chief Executive Sir Peter Davis's analysis of the figures had to be readjusted from an initial reaction in the morning. At first he claimed that Sainsbury's had a net customer gain over Tesco's, when he said: "After Christmas, I said that Sainsbury's had a net gain in customer expenditure from Tesco. That was true before Christmas and it's also true on the latest figures to March."

However, later on in the day he was reported by Reuters as saying: "For the first time [in five-and-a-half years] we are showing six months of market share gains, but not at the rate of Tesco or Asda."

This apparent conflict was aligned by Sainsbury's spokeswoman Lynda Ashton who said: "In selected periods we have taken market share from Tesco."

In spite of this, the Sainsbury's stock fell 11.25p to 408.75 by the afternoon of April 12.

The company is ending the first year of a three-year resurgence programme and the figures indicate another rise for the fifth consecutive quarter.

Sir Peter said: "These numbers demonstrate a sustained step change in our UK supermarkets sales performance. This is clear evidence that our strategy of upgrading our store portfolio combined with offering outstanding quality and great service at competitive prices is being well received by our customers."

Sir Peter said the store's Jamie Oliver adverts had "undoubtedly been very effective in all parts of the country".

On the Friday April 12 the market valued the company at £7.9 billion and the strong showing by the supermarket was entirely in line with analysts' predictions.

(GMcG)

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