Sainsbury takes on Aldi and Lidl after 'relentless' price cuts

Sainsbury today hailed its focus on food under CEO Simon Roberts and said it is taking market share from rivals including Aldi and Lidl at the cheaper end of the market and Waitrose at the top.

Profits for the year to March are up 1.6% to £701 million.

In a swipe at the German discount giants, it dubbed them “limited choice grocers” and said it was winning back customers from both Aldi and Lidl thanks to price matching promises.

CEO Simon Roberts: “We said we’d put food back at the heart of Sainsbury’s and that’s what we’ve done. Our food business is firing on all cylinders.”

The City thinks his next task is to get the general merchandise arm – clothes and homewares – growing as well as the food business.

Overall sales for the year grew 3.4% to £36.3 billion. The dividend is held at 13.1p.

The bank arm slumped somewhat, with profits down from £46 million to £29 million. It said this was down to the “impact of higher funding costs from increased interest rates not being fully passed on to customers”.

Roberts added: “The business has real momentum and we’re excited by our goal of making good food joyful, accessible and affordable for everyone, every day.”

He added: “We have the best combination of value and quality in the market and that’s winning us customers from all our key competitors, driving consistent volume market share growth as more customers choose us for their weekly shop and all their special occasions.”

“We’ve done that by relentlessly investing in price; £780 million over the past three years.”

Sainsbury shares open today at 268p. They are down more than 4% this year.