Cheap strawberries boost Sainsbury’s

SLASHING prices for summer favourites like strawberries helped Sainsbury’s to its best supermarket sales for years.

The firm said keeping the price down on staples like potatoes and strawberries helped buoy its sales, while the heatwave drove demand for paddling pools and fans.

Sales across stores open for more than a year, including the recently-bought Argos chain, rose 2.3pc in the 16 weeks to July 1 while total retail sales were up 2.7pc.

Sales were also boosted by rising inflation, as well as the later timing of Easter and Mother’s Day and the expansion of its own label brands.

Clothing sales increased by 7.2pc in the period while it also saw another robust performance online, with sales up 8pc for groceries and 10pc for Argos. Mike Coupe, chief executive, said it was the group’s ‘best performance for a number of years’.

Sainsbury’s is rumoured to be in the process of buying Nisa, a network of more than 2,500 independently-owned convenience stores, in a deal worth close to £130m.