Sainsbury’s clothing sales improve by 2.2 percent

For the third quarter, total sales at Britain's supermarket group Sainsbury’s increased by 3.7 percent and sales over the Christmas period increased by 3.8 percent, while like-for-like sales increased by 2.8 percent.

The company said in a release that while general merchandise and clothing sales were down 0.1 percent, clothing sales grew by 2.2 percent, outperforming the market and all supermarket competitors, reflecting improvements in range and availability.

Sainsbury's added that the results were offset by lower general merchandise sales, as the company accelerates space reallocation programmes and focuses on full-price seasonal sales.

Commenting on the third quarter update, Simon Roberts, chief executive of J Sainsbury plc, said: “The strength of our customer service and operational performance stood us apart in delivering our biggest ever Christmas. Customers shopped later than ever and we achieved our highest ever sales in the final days before Christmas.”

The company further said that it expects to deliver full-year underlying operating profit in line with consensus and the midpoint of its guidance range of 1.01 to 1.06 billion pounds, representing growth of around 7 percent.

Sainsbury’s also announced that it will increase pay for its 118,000 hourly-paid colleagues by a total of five percent this year, taking the total salary for a full time colleague outside London from 22,882 pounds to 24,026 pounds by August 2025.

“Our people are fundamental to achieving our “next level” Sainsbury’s plan and we are pleased to announce that we will raise pay for our hourly-paid colleagues by five percent in the year ahead, split into two separate increases to help manage a particularly tough cost inflation environment. We believe in rewarding our colleagues well for delivering leading service and productivity and we will be the best paying UK grocer from March,” added Roberts.