Sainbury issued a promising trading statement last week but why no mention of margins? It's not alone with all the other multiples reluctant to cover margins in their quarterly updates. Good see that Marks gives them a mention.
Commentary at www.investorschampion.com

Any particular reason for the advance this afternoon?
393 plus as I write.

Here's the reason: UBS has added the supermarket to its Global top 40 list.

Trading Statement

Second Quarter Trading Statement for the 16 weeks to 28 September 2013

Strong sales delivering continued outperformance

· Total sales for second quarter up 5.0 per cent (4.6 per cent excluding fuel)

· Like-for-like sales for second quarter up 2.1 per cent (2.0 per cent excluding fuel)

· Total sales for the first half up 4.4 per cent (4.0 per cent excluding fuel) and like-for-like sales up 1.5 per cent (1.4 per cent excluding fuel)

Sainsbury's takes price comparison spat with Tesco to high court

LONDON | Wed Oct 30, 2013 5:40am GMT
(Reuters) - Supermarket J Sainsbury will take its spat over price comparisons with Tesco to Britain's high court, challenging a ruling by the advertising watchdog in favour of its rival.

Britain's supermarkets are battling intensely for market share in tough economic conditions. Advertising is a major battleground.

Interim Results

Financial summary(1)
· Total sales (inc VAT, inc fuel) up 4.4 per cent to £13,953 million (2012/13: £13,365 million)
· Total sales (inc VAT, ex fuel) up 4.0 per cent
· Like-for-like sales (inc VAT, ex fuel) up 1.4 per cent
· Underlying profit before tax(2) up 7.0 per cent to £400 million (2012/13: £374 million)
· Underlying basic earnings per share(3) up 9.2 per cent to 16.6 pence (2012/13: 15.2 pence)
· Return on capital employed(4) of 11.4 per cent (2012/13: 10.8 per cent)
· Return on capital employed excluding pension fund deficit(5) of 10.5 per cent (2012/13: 10.3 per cent)
· Interim dividend of 5.0 pence, up 4.2 per cent (2012/13: 4.8 pence)

Statutory
· Revenue (ex VAT, inc fuel) up 4.3 per cent to £12,684 million (2012/13: £12,160 million)
· Profit before tax up 9.1 per cent to £433 million (2012/13: £397 million)
· Basic earnings per share up 8.5 per cent to 17.9 pence (2012/13: 16.5 pence)

Operating performance
· Outperformed the market, increasing market share to 16.8 per cent(6), the highest for a decade, completing 35 consecutive quarters of like-for-like sales growth
· Excellent customer service levels winning 15 out of 28 Grocer 33 Service and Availability awards
· Operational cost savings of around £55 million, on track for around £100 million for the full year
· Improved underlying operating margin by 7 bps to 3.47 per cent (up 6 bps at constant fuel prices)
· Supermarket of the Year (6th time in eight years) and Convenience Chain of the Year (4th consecutive year), Retail Industry Awards. Online Retailer of the Year (2nd consecutive year), Grocer Gold Awards
· FTSE 100 Business of the Year, National Business Awards
· Defined benefit pension fund triennial valuation complete resulting in funding deficit of £592 million, a £635 million improvement on the 2009 valuation. Recovery plan agreed in 2009 remains unchanged

Strategy
· Great Food:Own-brand growing at over twice the rate of branded goods, by Sainsbury's re-launched and Taste the Difference showing double-digit growth. Achieved 100 per cent British fresh pork, to complement our existing 100 per cent British fresh chicken and 100 per cent British or Irish fresh beef
· Compelling General Merchandise and Clothing: Strong growth at around twice the rate of food sales. Successfully re-launched Tu clothing brand and extended by Sainsbury's brand into general merchandise
· Complementary Channels and Services: Groceries online growing at over 15 per cent, with over £1 billion in annualised sales and orders regularly exceeding 180,000 a week. Plans announced for an online fulfilment centre at Bromley-by-Bow. Convenience growing at over 20 per cent, opening around two new stores each week. Sainsbury's Bank remains on track to move to full ownership by the end of January 2014
· Developing New Business: Launched Mobile by Sainsbury's and opened fourth hospital out-patient pharmacy
· Growing Space and Creating Property Value: Opened 393,000 sq ft of space over the half-year, comprising six supermarkets, 50 convenience stores and two extensions. Property profits were £18 million. Property value up £0.3 billion from March 2013 to £11.8 billion. Following a review of our property pipeline we have identified some sites where we no longer wish to build a supermarket, resulting in a £92 million impairment within one-off items

Sainsbury Market Share Slips for First Time Since January

LONDON--J. Sainsbury PLC (SBRY.LN), the U.K.'s third largest supermarket chain, saw its market share fall for the first time since January, as discount retailer Aldi's rise continues unabated with almost a third of British households shopping in its stores over the past 12 weeks.

"The number of shoppers visiting Aldi has grown by 16% year-on-year at the same time as the average basket size has swelled by nearly 15%," said Edward Garner at Kantar Worldpanel, which monitors the household grocery purchasing habits of 25,000 demographically representative households in the U.K. "In fact, almost a third of British households have shopped in Aldi in the past 12 weeks," he added.

Trading Update Tomorrow.

Barclays Capital Overweight 362.55 440.00 440.00 Reiterates
Bank of America Merrill Lynch Underperform 362.55 430.00 350.00 Downgrades
HSBC Neutral 362.55 415.00 415.00 Reiterates
Morgan Stanley Overweight 362.55 415.00 415.00 Retains
Deutsche Bank Hold 362.55 410.00 410.00 Reiterates

Trading Statement

Third Quarter Trading Statement for the 14 weeks to 4 January 2014

Good sales performance in a tough market

· Total sales for third quarter up 2.5 per cent (2.7 per cent excluding fuel)

· Like-for-like sales for third quarter flat (0.2 per cent excluding fuel)

· 28 million customer transactions in the seven day run up to Christmas

· Strong sales growth in Taste the Difference over the Christmas period

Barclays Capital Overweight 361.15 440.00 440.00 Reiterates

Directorate Change

Sainsbury's announces Justin King to step down;
Mike Coupe appointed CEO from 9 July 2014

Sainsbury's today announces that Justin King has decided to step down in July 2014 after 10 years as CEO, and that Mike Coupe, currently the Group Commercial Director, will succeed him as CEO.

David Tyler, Chairman said: "Justin is a truly exceptional leader, who has reshaped Sainsbury's during his 10 years as CEO, as well as playing a leading role in the sector and wider business world. The Board thanks him for his outstanding achievements in 'Making Sainsbury's Great Again'. He leaves a lasting legacy, with the Company stronger than ever.

"We are delighted to appoint a CEO of Mike's unique talent and experience as Justin's successor to lead the next chapter of Sainsbury's history. No one knows Sainsbury's - or the industry - better than Mike. He has worked hand-in-hand with Justin over the past decade and has a proven track record of success making him the natural choice to take the Company forward."

Justin King, CEO said: "This was not an easy decision for me to make, and in truth it will never feel like the right time to leave a company like Sainsbury's. It has been a privilege to have led the Company for the past 10 years and I am incredibly proud of our achievements in that time. It is the 157,000 colleagues that make Sainsbury's so special and I would like to thank them for their amazing efforts over the last decade in making Sainsbury's great again. I am confident that under Mike's leadership the business will go from strength to strength."

Mike Coupe, CEO designatesaid: "It's an absolute honour to be appointed as the new CEO of Sainsbury's in this, the Company's 145th year, and at a time when thanks to Justin's leadership, we have been consistently outperforming the market. I very much look forward to building on that success for our customers, colleagues, suppliers and shareholders."

Supermarkets generally weak today.
2517

Jefferies International Hold 307.90 410.00 350.00 Reiterates

Jumped on board today. SBRY is not MRW. Trading update next week should provoke a relief rally - I hope. In the meantime I've put a few in my ISA. Nice yield down at these levels.

Trading Statement

Fourth Quarter Trading Statement for 10 weeks to 15 March 2014

Declining sales in a tough market, continued outperformance of peers

· Total sales for fourth quarter down 1.5 per cent (down 1.0 per cent ex fuel)
· Like-for-like sales for fourth quarter down 3.8 per cent (down 3.1 per cent ex fuel)

Justin King, Chief Executive, said, "We have seen a decline in sales in the quarter reflecting tough comparatives. This time last year our sales benefited significantly from the discovery of horsemeat in some branded and competitors' products. We are pleased, however, that market data shows we have maintained market share at 17%1.

The market is now growing at its slowest rate since 2005, with falling food inflation in particular benefiting customers. The later timing of Easter and Mother's Day, which fall in quarter one of our new financial year, and unseasonable weather have also contributed to lower market growth year-on-year.

We continue to see growth in our own-brand ranges, significantly ahead of branded products, with penetration now at 51 per cent, versus 47 per cent for the market2. Our own-brand products are, on average, 20 per cent cheaper than a branded equivalent and are also supported by the values that our customers expect of us. We recently lowered the price of our milk, bread and eggs, but continue to pay a fair price to farmers through our Dairy Development Group, and only use British flour in our in-store bakeries and eggs from hens that are free to roam. Customers continue to tell us they recognise the uniqueness and value for money of our own-brand ranges.

Our general merchandise and clothing business continues to perform well, with particularly strong growth in menswear of over 23 per cent year-on-year. During the quarter we announced the renewal of our collaboration with the designer Gok Wan for a further 12 collections, and also released our eleventh collection of his ladieswear. Following successful trials, we have introduced our new general merchandise and clothing format into 53 stores, with a further 26 planned for the first quarter of the next financial year.

During the quarter we announced the completion of the acquisition of Lloyds Banking Group's share of Sainsbury's Bank, and are on track to complete the transition process as planned. We expect the Bank to become an increasingly important part of the value that customers receive from Sainsbury's, and another driver of customer loyalty.

Growth in our convenience business remains strong at over 15 per cent, and for the first time, during the quarter we saw one million transactions in a day. As well as opening around two new stores per week, we are part way through a programme to refit produce equipment in existing stores, responding to customer demand for more fresh food. Our groceries online business is growing at six per cent year-on-year, reflecting a reduction in marketing while the new customer website is launched. This roll-out is now 80 per cent complete and is due to finish in April.

Store operational standards and in-store execution remain high, as demonstrated by 21 wins over the financial year in the Grocer 33 award, with record high levels of availability.

We have opened approximately one million square feet of new space over the year, in line with our plans, including 22 convenience stores during the quarter. This brings a total for the year of 13 new supermarkets, 91 convenience stores and six extensions. We have also refurbished a further 54 stores.
Although some economic indicators are showing an improvement in the health of the economy, we expect the outlook for customers to continue to be challenging for the coming year. We remain confident that our differentiated offer, supported by 'value for values', Nectar data and Brand Match, will allow us to outperform our peers in the year ahead."

Found this comment over at Charles Stanley in one of their recent morning notes:

Sainsbury (SBRY: 314p) was the latest UK food retailer to come out with some pretty
shocking figures although its first quarterly decline in profits in nine years was not quite the surprise that the newspapers suggested. In fact, such has been the carnage in the sector that investors were patently relieved that the numbers were not even worse and the shares ended a choppy session with a gain of a couple of pence. The chart shows that they have spent the last few days hovering around the 300p level (having gapped dramatically lower last week) although it is still too early to suggest that a lasting bottom is in place. The salient point here is that a clearly-defined downtrend has developed over the last few months and while there is scope for further near-term upside (possibly to 330p) the overall technical picture is saying that it is still right to sell into strength.

Sharecast - Sainsbury’s is best placed to weather the supermarket price war but shareholder returns may be small, Danny Fortson wrote in the Sunday Times. In his Inside the City column, Fortson argued that Sainsbury’s was positioned to cope with the squeeze on the big grocers by German value chains Aldi and Lidl on one side and Waitrose at the posher end of the market. Bernstein analysts say Sainsbury’s has the longest established and best executed strategy. Tesco and Morrisons look “pretty desperate” Fortson said. "Some wars, of course, simply aren’t worth fighting,” Fortson concluded.

Sainsbury's faces £100m profit blow in price war as opening salvo is fired against discount Germans

By Neil Craven, Financial Mail On Sunday

Published: 22:19, 3 May 2014 | Updated: 22:19, 3 May 2014


Sainsbury's will plunge into the supermarket price war this week when it unveils annual results amid City fears that discounting will wipe billions of pounds off retailers’ profits in the coming year.


The ‘Big Four’ supermarkets – Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda and Morrisons – have all been affected by the exodus to German discounters Aldi and Lidl.


Sainsbury’s is expected to be hit by a wave of profit downgrades from City brokers this week following the opening salvo of cuts announced just days ago by Morrisons.





Discounting: Sainsbury's is expected to be hit by a wave of profit downgrades from City brokers


Discounting: Sainsbury's is expected to be hit by a wave of profit downgrades from City brokers



While the discounting is good for consumers as prices plummet, it is set to have a devastating effect on profits. Some analysts believe Sainsbury’s is preparing to launch price cuts and promotions worth up to £200million to defend itself.

Aldi and Lidl have grown rapidly over the past two years, capitalising on disillusionment among shoppers with the major supermarkets. Many sources estimate that the Germans are at least 15 per cent cheaper.



Two months ago Sainsbury’s chief Justin King, who leaves this summer, dismissed cuts at rivals as part of a ‘phoney’ price war.


But last week’s announcement by Morrisons that it would cut the price of 1,200 of its most popular items by an average of 17 per cent was widely seen by the City as a clear sign of structural change.


Reductions at Morrisons included slashing the price of Jammie Dodgers from £1.09 to 49p, eight cans of diet coke from £4.39 to £2.64 and Napolina chopped tomatoes from £1.25 to 79p.


Morrisons chief executive Dalton Philips has compared the impact of Aldi and Lidl to the shockwaves that were sent through the airline sector by low-cost carriers such as easyJet and Ryanair.


Retail analyst Clive Black at stockbroker Shore Capital described the cuts as a ‘contagion’ and he predicted further downgrades across the sector.


Sainsbury’s is expected to report a slight increase in profit this week of about 4 per cent to £786million. But some analysts fear the chain’s profits could drop by up to £100million over the next 12 months.


Price cuts could also be funded by reduced spending on new stores. Some analysts forecast that Tesco’s profit could drop to as little as £2.5billion in the same period from a high two years ago of £3.9billion.

Final results

Financial summary (1)
· Underlying Group sales (inc VAT) up 2.8 per cent to £26,353 million (2012/13: £25,632 million)(2)
· Retail sales (inc VAT, ex fuel) up 2.7 per cent
· Like-for-like sales (inc VAT, ex fuel) up 0.2 per cent
· Underlying profit before tax up 5.3 per cent to £798 million (2012/13: £758 million)(3)
· Underlying basic earnings per share up 6.5 per cent to 32.8 pence (2012/13: 30.8 pence)(4)
· Return on capital employed up 19 bps to 11.3 per cent (2012/13: 11.1 per cent)(5)
· Return on capital employed excluding pension fund deficit of 10.4 per cent (2012/13: 10.4 per cent)(5)
· Proposed full year dividend of 17.3 pence, up 3.6 per cent, cover 1.90 times (2012/13: 16.7 pence, cover 1.84 times)

Statutory
· Group sales (ex VAT, inc fuel) up 2.8 per cent to £23,949 million (2012/13: £23,303 million)
· Profit before tax up 16.3 per cent to £898 million (2012/13: £772 million)
· Items excluded from underlying results contributed £100 million of profit (2012/13: £14 million profit)
· Basic earnings per share up 17.8 per cent to 37.7 pence (2012/13: 32.0 pence)

Operating performance
· Market share maintained in tough retail environment; still at highest for a decade at 16.8 per cent(6)
· Operational cost savings of around £120 million
· Capital expenditure reduced to £888 million (3.4 per cent of sales) and year end net debt £2.4 billion
· Underlying operating margin improved by 8 bps (up 7 bps at constant fuel prices)
· Acquisition of Sainsbury's Bank completed as planned on 31 January 2014; transition remains on track
· Defined benefit pension fund triennial valuation complete resulting in funding deficit of £592 million, a
£635 million improvement on the 2009 valuation. Recovery plan agreed in 2009 remains unchanged
· Awarded:
o FTSE100 Business of the Year 2013 - QBE National Business Awards
o Supermarket of the Year - Retail Industry Awards (sixth time in eight years)
o Online Retailer of the Year - Grocer Gold awards (second consecutive year)
o Convenience Retailer of the Year - Retail Industry Awards (fourth consecutive year)
o Gold Accreditation - Investors In People (only supermarket to achieve this)

Sharecast - City fund managers are betting on share falls for some of Britain’s top retailers including Sainsbury's, the Mail on Sunday reported. Odey Asset Management, Artemis Investment Management and Eton Park International are among funds that have gambled more than £1bn on shares in Sainsbury’s, WH Smith and Burberry falling. The retailers are in the top 15 companies short sold by investors as investors focus on companies with imminent or recent management changes.

Sainsbury’s is expected to report a rare fall in sales when it posts a trading statement on June 12th, according to the Sunday Times. Analysts expect sales at stores open at least a year to have fallen by between 1% and 1.5% in the first quarter of the supermarket group’s financial year, the second three-month period in which sales fell after nine years of gains. However, Sainsbury’s is faring better than its rivals among the big four UK supermarkets.