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

FTSE 100 movers: Energy stocks hit by drop in crude, Lloyds boosted by upgrade

Fri, 02 January 2015


Sainsbury was trading lower as hedge funds forecast that the supermarket group would be damaged by the grocery industry's escalating price war. Lansdowne Partners, Odey Asset Management and Marshall Wace all blamed the growing popularity of discounters Aldi and Lidl, who would hit profitability by forcing aggressive price cuts for the group to remain competitive.

stop out +14

long or short or secret?

Trading Statement

Third Quarter Trading Statement for the 14 weeks to 3 January 2015

Good sales performance in a tough market

· Total Retail sales for third quarter down 0.4 per cent (excl fuel), down 2.5 per cent (inc fuel)

· Like-for-like Retail sales for third quarter down 1.7 per cent (excl fuel), down 3.9 per cent (inc fuel)

· Over 29.5 million customer transactions in the seven days before Christmas

· Over 1,000 product prices reduced since we announced our £150 million price investment

Sainsbury's leapfrogs Asda to become UK's second-largest supermakert as Aldi and Lidl go from strength to strength




http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/news/article-2908159/Sainsbury-s-beats-Asda-2nd-biggest-supermarket.html

Sharecast -


Sainsbury's to cut 500 jobs in discounter price war

Tue, 13 January 2015


Sainsbury's will slash 500 jobs from store support centres in an effort to cut costs and compete with the discounters.
The supermarket's plan is to save £500m over the next three years, now that new chief executive Mike Coupe is at the helm.

According to the superstore, this plan will "streamline our central divisions and bring our supermarkets and convenience businesses together".

Losing 500 members of its 161,000 strong staff seems like it will be the firm's first move this year.

Coupe told staff in a recent letter: "I recognise that these changes will be difficult for our colleagues and I can assure you the decision to make them was not taken lightly."

"However, I'm certain that we will be in a stronger position to deliver our new strategy and better equipped to win in these times of change as a result."

This is the latest news in the ongoing supermarket price war that has seen the price of milk drop below bottled water in some cases.

shorted attempt to close yesterday gap at 269 at the open,nice stop just above 274.5. it fires up 10 min ago freaking nicely.

gone nicely, collapsed risk.

Both these & TSCO up 3.9% today ahead of SBRY reporting tomorrow.

Trading Statement

Fourth Quarter Trading Statement for the ten weeks to 14 March 2015

Positive response to price investment as volume and like-for-like transactions increase

· Total Retail sales for fourth quarter down 0.3 per cent (excl fuel), down 2.7 per cent (inc fuel)

· Like-for-like Retail sales for fourth quarter down 1.9 per cent (excl fuel), down 3.9 per cent (inc fuel)

· Over 1,100 prices reduced since we announced our £150 million price investment

· Volume increases across the business as new customers discover our great value

Clarification on Egyptian legal case

We are aware of media coverage today outlining a legal case in Egypt brought against our Chief Executive Mike Coupe. This relates to a historic commercial dispute in which Mike Coupe had no involvement and we strongly refute all the allegations.

Mike Coupe was not employed by Sainsbury's at the time of the original business deal in 2001 and has never met the complainant.

When Mr El Nasharty bought our interest in the Egyptian joint venture we had with him in 2001, he paid us with cheques that were dishonoured. Mr El Nasharty is now claiming that Mike was in Egypt on 15th July 2014 and seized these cheques, which is an impossibility. Mike Coupe was in London carrying out his normal duties that day. In September 2014 Mike Coupe was convicted, without notice of the proceedings against him and in his absence, in an Egyptian Court. We have taken all necessary steps to appeal against these groundless claims and will continue to do so.

This process is being handled by our legal team and we do not anticipate it having any material operational or financial impact on the company.

Final Results

Financial summary
· Underlying Group sales(1) (inc VAT) down 0.9 per cent to £26,122 million (2013/14: £26,353 million)
· Retail sales (inc VAT, ex fuel) down 0.2 per cent
· Like-for-like sales (inc VAT, ex fuel) down 1.9 per cent
· Underlying profit before tax(2) down 14.7 per cent to £681 million (2013/14: £798 million)
· Underlying basic earnings per share(3) down 19.5 per cent to 26.4 pence (2013/14: 32.8 pence)
· Return on capital employed(4) of 9.7 per cent (2013/14: 11.3 per cent)
· Return on capital employed excluding pension fund deficit of 9.0 per cent (2013/14: 10.4 per cent)

Statutory
· Group sales (ex VAT, inc fuel) down 0.7 per cent to £23,775 million (2013/14: £23,949 million)
· Items excluded from underlying results total a charge of £753 million (2013/14: £100 million credit), including an impairment and onerous contract charge of £628 million (2013/14: £92 million charge)
· Loss before tax of £72 million (2013/14: £898 million profit)
· Basic loss per share 8.7 pence (2013/14: 37.7 pence earnings per share)
· Proposed full-year dividend 13.2 pence per share, down 23.7 per cent, cover 2.0 times (2013/14: 17.3 pence per share, cover 1.9 times)

Operational Highlights

Great products and services at fair prices
· We are investing in lowering prices on products where customers have told us that price is most important. We have never been more competitive on price versus our competition and are seeing encouraging early signs of volume and transaction growth
· Our programme to improve the quality of 3,000 own-brand products that matter most to our customers is well under way and customers will see more of our improved product ranges over the coming year
· General merchandise and clothing are performing strongly, with sales up over nine per cent
· Sainsbury's Bank delivered sales and profit growth, with operating profit up 17 per cent to £62 million. We are making good progress against our transition plan albeit total capital costs associated with the transition are expected to increase by between £80 million and £120 million

There for our customers
· We have identified sites for our new convenience and supermarket format trials, as we look to make our customer shopping experience easier and more convenient
· We opened 98 convenience stores during the year and delivered over 16 per cent convenience sales growth. We continue to open one to two convenience stores per week
· Groceries online delivered growth in the number of customer orders of 13 per cent, and we have invested in our platform to improve service and availability

Colleagues making the difference
· We restructured the way we work at our store support centres to improve efficiencies, reducing the number of roles by 500. In April 2015, we also announced a restructure of our stores to improve efficiency and customer service, which we expect to result in around 800 fewer roles
· We are developing digital hubs in London and Coventry, creating 480 specialist roles
· We continue to invest in colleague training and development. We won 'Training Initiative of the Year' at the Retail Industry Awards for a programme designed to improve operational outcomes and customer experience

We know our customers better than anyone else
· Our customer insight remains a source of competitive advantage and allows us to reward our customers in a personalised way
· In April 2015, we changed the way we reward our Nectar customers, reducing the number of points earned but introducing more high-value bonus events

Our values make us different
· Our values remain a key component of our differentiated offer and we will continue to focus on areas that our customers care about
· We received our second consecutive Green Retailer of the Year award at the 2014 Grocer Gold Awards. Amongst other environmental initiatives, our Triple Zero stores and CO2 refrigerated vehicles were recognised

Maintaining balance sheet strength
· We have taken decisive action to maintain our balance sheet strength and maximise our cash position, to ensure we remain fit for the future and are able to capitalise on our many growth opportunities
· We have delivered operating cost savings of £140 million in 2014/15 and expect to deliver total operating cost savings of £500 million over the next three years
· Core retail capital expenditure(5) was £947 million in 2014/15. We will reduce core retail capital expenditure to between £500 million and £550 million per annum in each of the next three years. The allocation of our capital expenditure is also changing to reflect our strategy
· The value of our property has decreased during the year by £0.9 billion to £11.1 billion, mainly due to a reduction in market rental values
· We have improved retail working capital by more than £300 million as a result of operational efficiencies
· We have an affordable dividend policy and have fixed cover at 2.0 times our underlying earnings

more....

Trading Statement tomorrow - Financial Calendar

1st Quarter Results

Perhaps a good time to think about shorting. Look over bought. Discounters still eating away at margins. The Christmas competition is going to be fierce.

Sainsbury returns to H1 pretax profit as sales fall

StockMarketWire.com

Sainsbury has returns to profit by posting H1 pretax earnings to GBP339m, from a year-ago loss of GBP290m. Interim dividend was 4p a share. Like-for-like sales, including VAT but excluding fuel, were down 1.6%.

It said underlying group sales, including VAT, were down 2% to GBP13.64bn.

CEO Mike Coupe said:

"We are making good progress against the strategy we outlined last November. We are delivering volume and transaction growth as customers value our quality improvements and our clearer, simpler message of lower regular prices.

"To complement our core food offer of great quality and inspiring food, sold at fair prices, we are delivering on our strategy to expand our non-food businesses with further growth in clothing, general merchandise and Sainsbury's Bank.

"Our strategy of investing to ensure customers can shop with us across multiple channels remains a strategic advantage. Shopping at Sainsbury's is now more convenient than ever for our customers and we are able to reward them for their loyalty.

"We continue to run the business efficiently and our cost savings programme is ahead of plan. We now expect savings of around £225 million by the end of this financial year and we are on track to deliver our target of £500 million cost savings over the next three years."

Easy short from the open on those figures out today.

If it doesn't bounce on 50DMA big gap to fill to 230p.

supermarkets-tough-christmas-pressure-discounters-mounts

Company News



Tue, 17 November 2015


Sainsbury's gains share as discounters claim fifth of grocery market, says Kantar



Sainsbury (J) Quote more






Price: 248.40

Chg: 5.20

Chg %: 2.14%

Date: 17:00



FTSE 100 Quote


Price: 6,268.76 Chg: 122.38 Chg %: 1.99% Date: 17:14

(ShareCast News) - Discounters Aldi and Lidl have reached a combined share of 10% of the British grocery market for the first time, while Sainsbury's became the first major supermarket to claim a market share increase for over a year.
The overall grocery market remained slow in the 12 weeks to 8 November, with sales up by 0.5% according to data from industry research house Kantar Worldpanel, down from the 0.8% announced a month ago.

Revenues continue to be held back by the fierce price war that saw prices down by 1.7% on a like-for-like basis.

Sainsbury's market share increasing by 0.2 percentage points to 16.6% thanks to a 1.5% increase in sales and, as a food-focused retailer, the company traditionally increases its market share over Christmas so could increase its share further by the end of the year.

Sales fell at the rest of the major retailers, with Tesco down by 2.5% and Morrisons sales falling 1.7%.

Asda sales declined 3.5% but the WalMart-owned chain recently announced a slimlined product range, further price investment and increasing click-and-collect opportunities in its stores.

But the continuing rise of the discounters remains a concern for the 'big four', signalling no end to the price battle.

"If you look back as recently as 2012 Aldi and Lidl only held a 5% share of the market, and it had previously taken them nine years to double their combined share from 2.5%," said Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar.

He noted that in the last 12 weeks the two retailers have attracted another additional million shoppers compared with last year while average spend per trip has increased by 4% to £18.85, which is 78p ahead of the total retailer average.

"The discounters show no sign of stopping and with plans to open hundreds of stores between them, they'll noticeably widen their reach to the British population."

Lidl's market share reached a new record high of 4.4%, increasing by 0.7 percentage points on last year thanks to a sales growth of 19%.

Aldi grew sales by 16.5%, keeping its market share at 5.6% for the fifth consecutive month.