Q3 like-for-like sales, excluding fuel, up 3.4%Grocery sales up 5.4%General merchandise and clothing sales down 1.1%Maintains profit outlook for 2025/26 yearLONDON, Jan 9 (Reuters) – Sainsbury’s (SBRY.L), opens new tab, Britain’s second-largest supermarket group, on Friday reported a 3.4% rise in underlying sales for the key Christmas quarter as strong grocery sales outweighed softer general merchandise trading.The group, which trails only Tesco (TSCO.L), opens new tab by market share, said it still expected to deliver full-year retail underlying operating profit of “more than 1 billion pounds” ($1.34 billion) for its year to March 2026, versus 1.04 billion pounds made in 2024/25.
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Sainsbury’s said grocery sales rose 5.4% over the 16 weeks to January 3 year-on-year.
However, general merchandise and clothing sales within Sainsbury’s fell 1.1% and sales were down 1.0% in the Argos business.
Industry data published on Tuesday showed Sainsbury’s ended 2025 with a UK grocery market share of 16.3%, up 30 basis points on the year.
“We have won grocery market share for the sixth consecutive Christmas period, again delivering our winning combination of value, quality, service and availability for customers,” CEO Simon Roberts said.
Sainsbury’s update, following one from Tesco on Thursday, confirmed that the two biggest supermarket groups are continuing to outperform the wider UK retail market with their focus on value at a time of subdued consumer confidence, still high inflation and weakening employment.Both have continued to benefit from the enduring trend of UK consumers eating more at home rather than dining out to save cash, and at Christmas, they both saw customers prioritise festive food over spending on clothing.
Sainsbury’s said fresh food lines in its premium ‘Taste the Difference’ range soared 15% in the Christmas quarter.
On Thursday, both Marks & Spencer (MKS.L), opens new tab and Primark (ABF.L), opens new tab reported subdued clothing sales.
Shares in Sainsbury’s have increased 25% over the last year.
($1 = 0.7448 pounds)
Reporting by James Davey; editing by Sarah Young
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