10th Jan 2008 07:01
Sainsbury(J) PLC10 January 2008 10 January 2008 Third Quarter Trading Statement for 12 weeks to 29 December 2007 Good Christmas quarter keeps recovery ahead of plan Highlights • Total sales for third quarter up 5.9 per cent (4.7 per cent excluding fuel)• Like-for-like sales for third quarter up 5.1 per cent (3.7 per cent excluding fuel)• Twelve consecutive quarters of like-for-like sales growth• £2.5 billion additional sales target achieved three months ahead of plan Justin King, chief executive, said: "We are pleased to report like-for-likesales growth of 3.7 per cent, excluding fuel, for the third quarter. This is agood result for the Christmas quarter, and is particularly pleasing given thelevel of competition during this period. We have now completed 12 consecutivequarters of like-for-like sales growth delivering strong three-year growth aheadof our expectations. "As a result of this continued strong sales momentum, we are also delighted toreport that we have now successfully achieved our goal of £2.5 billion ofadditional sales since March 2005. This significant milestone in our recoverywas surpassed early in quarter four, three months ahead of plan. "We made good year-on-year improvements across a number of seasonal events, suchas Halloween and Bonfire Night and this enabled us to continue to grow salesfrom an already strong base. Over 21.5 million customers shopped at Sainsbury'sin the seven days before Christmas supported by our highest level of productavailability this year. We served more than 300,000 customers per hour on 23December, the busiest trading day of the week. "Over the quarter we continued our investment in the customer offer to ensureour price position remains competitive for customers whilst continuing toprovide the additional quality Sainsbury's products have to offer. We alsodelivered a number of market-leading promotions in the weeks leading up toChristmas. We experienced good growth across our product range with our basicsvalue entry range and our Taste the difference premium range recording thestrongest growth of all our sub brands. "Sainsbury's Online continued to deliver exceptional sales growth of over 40 percent throughout the quarter. In the week before Christmas we delivered 90,000orders, our best ever performance and up over 50 per cent on the previous year.We now operate the service from an additional nine stores. "The performance of our non-food offer is now accelerating in line with ourongoing plans. Growth is being driven by the continued development of productranges and their introduction into new stores and store extensions. We had astrong Christmas gift offer, our first to be sourced direct by our in-houseteam. We had significant sales growth in homeware, toys, electrical,entertainment and clothing. "We are continuing to develop our store estate and are on track to deliver our2007/08 opening programme. During the quarter we opened 12 new supermarkets,extended five existing stores and refurbished 17 stores including our original 'green' store at Greenwich which reopened in November with significantly enhancedenergy efficiency credentials. We also opened eight new convenience stores. "We are pleased with our third quarter sales performance, the good growth weachieved during the Christmas period and the fact that we have achieved our £2.5billion additional sales target three months early. Consumer budgets areclearly under pressure and we expect the market to continue to be verycompetitive. The improvements we have made to our business during our recoverymeans we are well equipped to perform in this challenging environment and weremain confident in our ability to deliver our growth plans." Enquiries: Investor Relations MediaElliot Jordan Pip Wood+44 (0) 20 7695 4931 +44 (0) 20 7695 6127 Notes (1) Certain statements made in this announcement are forward lookingstatements. Such statements are based on current expectations and are subjectto a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differmaterially from any expected future events or results referred to in theseforward looking statements. Unless otherwise required by applicable law,regulation or accounting standard, we do not undertake any obligation to updateor revise any forward looking statements, whether as a result of newinformation, future developments or otherwise. (2) A conference call will take place at 8:45am GMT. To listen to the audiowebcast we recommend that you register in advance. To do so please visitwww.j-sainsbury.co.uk prior to the event and follow the on-screen instructions.To view the transcript of the conference call, go to www.j-sainsbury.co.uk on 11January 2008. (3) Sainsbury's will announce its fourth quarter trading statement on 26March 2008. (4) Sales results for the year to date:2007/08 Q1 Q2 H1 Q3 Sales growth including petrol (%)Total 5.7 3.8 4.7 5.9Lfl 4.4 2.6 3.3 5.1 Sales growth excluding petrol (%)Total 6.7 4.7 5.7 4.7Lfl 5.1 3.1 4.0 3.7 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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