More price cuts hurt Sainsbury’s

SAINSBURy’S posted another fall in sales as it battles hard against the discounters.

Britain’s third-largest grocer had to cut more prices to take on Aldi and Lidl.

Sales fell 1.1pc for the 16 weeks to September 24, which was worse than the 0.8pc fall seen the previous quarter.

Chief executive Mike Coupe said: ‘We have removed the vast majority of multi-buy promotions and we continue to reduce our promotional activity in favour of lower prices.’

The Big Four grocers have all lost market share and seen sales fall as the discounters improve quality, drop prices and revamp their stores. Coupe said the market was the most competitive he had known since he became a retailer more than 30 years ago, and Sainsbury’s prices had never been sharper compared with the discounters.

Convenience and online sales grew – the former up 7pc and the latter by 12pc.

Sainsbury’s will open 200 new digital collection points by the end of the year and already has 15 Argos stores open within its supermarkets, selling 90,000 products.

Shares fell 3.9pc, or 9.8p, to 241p.