LONDON (Reuters) – Sainsbury’s, Britain’s second-largest supermarket group, said on Tuesday it was sticking to its full-year financial forecast after reporting a 9.8% rise in underlying sales in the first quarter, under the effect of inflation.
The supermarket chain, which has 15% of the UK market, has confirmed that it expects underlying pre-tax profit of between 640 and 700 million pounds (745 to 814.87 million euros) for the whole of the 2023-24 financial year, compared to 690 million pounds in 2022-23.
Business conditions in the 16 weeks to June 24 were dominated by high inflation, outpacing wage growth at a time of rising interest rates, and putting pressure on household budgets.
Food and drink inflation was 18.3% in May, according to the most recent official data, and 14.6% in June, according to the most recent industrial data.
“Food inflation is starting to come down and we are fully committed to passing the savings on to our customers,” Sainsbury’s chief executive Simon Roberts said in a statement.
In Sainsbury’s first fiscal quarter, food sales increased by 11% and general merchandise sales by 4%.
(Reporting by James Davey, additional reporting by Sarah Young, Dina Kartit, editing by Blandine Hénault)
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