Sainsbury sales slide as it wages £14bn takeover

SAINSBURY’S sales surprisingly slumped as it battled to secure its £14.1bn merger with asda.

britain’s second biggest supermarket was the only major name to record a drop in the three months to June 17 – falling 0.2pc.

The overall grocery market, however, chalked up two years of continuous growth.

Sainsbury’s performance contrasts with its future partner asda which notched up growth of 1.8pc, according to the latest grocery data by Kantar Worldpanel.

asda and Sainsbury’s are the subject of an investigation by the competition regulator, expected to last 18 months. if it gets the green light, the merged group will become the UK’s biggest supermarket with annual sales of £51bn.

Last week asda chief executive roger burnley and Sainsbury’s boss Mike Coupe were grilled by MPs who raised concerns over the impact of the tie-up on suppliers and customers. Russ Mould, investment director at Aj bell, said: ‘The disappointing performance helps underpin the argument for Sainsbury’s tie-up with asda.

‘Getting regulatory approval for the merger is unlikely to be a straightforward process.’

Morrisons saw the biggest sales rise of the big Four supermarkets during the period with growth of 1.9pc, while Tesco recorded a 1.4pc lift. Co-op recorded its strongest growth in over a year as sales grew by 2.4pc and iceland notched up 2.5pc growth.

Waitrose grew sales just 0.1pc. Lidl and Ocado led the pack with growth of 10pc and 10.1pc respectively, but aldi grew market share to a record high of 7.4pc as sales increased 8.2pc.

Fraser McKevitt of Kantar Worldpanel said: ‘after a couple of difficult years for the supermarkets, this sustained period of growth is welcome news.’