Sainsbury’s posts second consecutive quarterly fall in sales

Sainsbury’s has posted a second consecutive quarterly fall in sales as it remains under pressure amid a bitter supermarket war and food price deflation.

Britain's second biggest supermarket, which recently completed a £1.4 billion (€1.6bn) takeover of Argos, reported a 1.1 per cent drop in like-for-like sales, excluding fuel, for the second quarter.

Boss Mike Coupe said: "We continue to make progress against our strategy and, while like-for-like sales were down 1.1 per cent, driven by food price deflation, we delivered like-for-like transaction growth across all channels and total volume growth."

Sainsbury’s added that Argos notched up like-for-like sales growth of 2.3 per cent during the period, with Mr Coupe saying the group would open 200 new digital collection points by the end of the year. Thirty Argos digital outlets will be open in Sainsbury’s stores by Christmas.

The grocer is slugging it out with rivals in a brutal price war which has eroded margins at all of the so-called big four supermarkets.

On Wednesday Sainsbury’s pledged to “remain competitive”, adding that it has made further investments in the prices of everyday items such as broccoli, onions and its frozen deep pan Margherita pizza.

“We expect the market to remain competitive and the effect of the devaluation of sterling remains unclear. However, Sainsbury’s is well positioned to navigate the changing marketplace, and we are confident that our strategy will enable us to continue to outperform our major peers,” Mr Coupe said.