By Sarah Young
LONDON (Reuters) -Sainsbury’s reported a higher-than-expected rise in quarterly sales on Tuesday, as Britain’s second-largest food retailer benefited from warm weather and a disruption at rival Marks & Spencer, which suffered a major cyber attack.
Still, Sainsbury’s, which trails market leader Tesco, did not lift its forecast for annual profit, despite its robust sales performance and a rise in its share of Britain’s grocery market to a nine-year high exceeding 15%.
Chief Executive Simon Roberts, explaining why the outlook was maintained, said it was too early in the financial year.
“Let’s see how the rest of the summer plays out. Let’s hope that we continue to see good momentum,” he told reporters on a call.
The cyber attack on M&S in April hit sales for about six weeks as online shopping was suspended, and as food availability in stores was hampered.
Roberts said Sainsbury’s, whose strategy for winning market share has been to match discounter Aldi’s prices on hundreds of key items, had seen “a little bit of benefit” from the M&S issues.
“It stands to reason if you know, if a particular store is lower on stock in the moment, a customer will go somewhere nearby,” he said.
Shares in Sainsbury’s, which have surged 21% in the last three months matching a similar rise in Tesco’s stock, were flat at 290 pence in mid-morning trading.
For the 16 weeks to June 21, Sainsbury’s UK like-for-like sales, excluding fuel, rose 4.7%, against a rise of 3.7% in the previous quarter, as good weather drove spending across its food, clothing and Argos general merchandise brand, beating a consensus forecast of 3.4%.
Last month, Tesco reported a better-than-expected 5.1% rise in UK underlying sales for its first quarter which ran to May 24.
Sainsbury’s kept its guidance for retail underlying operating profit, its preferred measure, of around 1 billion pounds for the full year to March 2026, versus 1.04 billion pounds made in 2024/25, reflecting its pledge to sustain a competitive edge on prices.
Part of Sainsbury’s caution over forecasts is likely to be linked to fears of a price war, after Asda, Britain’s third largest grocer, said in March it planned a sustained campaign of price cuts and would take a profit hit to reset its business.
(Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Sachin Ravikumar and Bernadette Baum)
