UK supermarket group J Sainsbury has said it had encouraging UK sales over the Christmas period, but changes to stores impacted sales during the earlier part of the third quarter.
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The company said its UK like-for-like sales for the third quarter to 3 January rose just 0.1%, while total sales rose 1.8%.
Over the four-week Christmas period, ending 3 January, like-for-like sales at Sainsbury’s rose 2.0% compared to the year-ago period, with a strong contribution from core food ranges.
In the US, the group’s Shaw’s Supermarkets performed well with strong sales over the Thanksgiving period. Total third-quarter sales rose 6.6%, while like-for-like sales edged up 1.5%.
In the UK Sainsbury’s is in the final year of its Business Transformation Programme, which includes changes to systems and distribution centres, and the introduction of non-food ranges. The programme is due for completion by summer 2004.
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By GlobalData“As we said at our Interims, the sheer volume of change is affecting our stores’ performance,” said Peter Davis, group chief executive.
Davis said that Sainsbury’s to You, the group’s grocery home delivery and Internet shopping business had performed strongly.
“Customer satisfaction levels were high and sales, for the first time, exceeded £4.4m (US$8.2m) in the seven days prior to Christmas,” he added.
