Mar 16, 2017
Argos helps Sainsbury’s deliver sales growth
J Sainsbury leaned on its newly acquired Argos catalogue retail business to deliver sales growth at the start of the year, after the group's core supermarket business slipped into decline. Like-for-like supermarket sales for the nine weeks to March 11 were 0.5 per cent lower than the same period last year, after briefly returning to growth over a better than expected Christmas period. Same-store sales at the catalogue retailer, which Sainsbury's bought for £1.4bn last year, increased by 4.3 per cent, enabling the group to record a modest sales increase of 0.3 per cent overall. Ten of the concessions have been open for more than a year, and are posting sales growth of about 25 per cent, Mr Coupe said. Intense competition has weighed on UK supermarkets' margins in recent years, but recent surveys by Kantar Worldpanel have shown sales growth increasing since the start of the year as inflation rises.
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