Sainsbury's reports a strong performance across Q3 – covering the 15 weeks to 6th January 2018 – bolstered by a record Christmas week.
Group CEO Mike Coupe says: “We’re pleased with our performance across the group this quarter. We had a strong Christmas week, with record sales, over 340,000 online grocery orders and stellar growth in Argos Fast Track delivery and collection. Online accounted for 20% of the group’s sales during the quarter.
“We delivered an excellent operational performance across the group, with great availability, strong customer satisfaction scores and our lowest level of waste ever at Christmas. Friday 22nd was our biggest sales day for stores, and we also delivered an online grocery order to customers every second.
“General merchandise and clothing grew market share in a challenging market. Argos stores in Sainsbury’s supermarkets performed particularly well, and Argos saw record sales across the Black Friday period."
Sainsbury's opened 52 Argos stores in Sainsbury’s supermarkets during the quarter, bringing the total to 164 – and plans to open around 145 Argos stores in Sainsbury’s supermarkets in the 2017/18 financial year.
The group also opened four Mini Habitat stores, bringing the total number of Habitat stores to 15.
Sainsbury's now expects to achieve £80m-£85m of EBITDA synergies from the Argos acquisition by March 2018, ahead of its previous estimates – and, as a consequence, it expects underlying profit in 2017/18 to be moderately ahead of published consensus.
