Sainsbury’s unveils c-store plans

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Sainsbury’s plans to open between 25-30 convenience stores a year over the next three years, including 18 ‘neighbourhood hub’ convenience stores.

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These larger format convenience stores offer a broader range of locally tailored products and services across food, beauty, clothing, seasonal, and general merchandise.

Sainsbury’s said: “We now have five of these stores open and trading. They are very popular with customers and are delivering high returns. Reflecting our strategy to flex the size and format of our stores to suit local needs, we also opened one new ‘On the Go’ store in Leicester Square in London this year.”

The news was included in the supermarket giant’s annual results for the 52 weeks ended 6 March. The retailer made a £261m loss, despite a 7.8% increase in grocery sales and a 102% increase in digital sales, after facing direct Covid-19 costs of £485m.

Sainsbury’s said its customers are making the most of being at home resulted in its biggest Valentine’s Day, Shrove Tuesday, Mother’s Day, and Easter. The retailer said sales of its Taste the Difference range grew 12.8% as a result, while SO Organic grew 11.1%.

In addition, the supermarket said it has put foundations in place to deliver a faster and stronger pipeline of innovative product development. It has committed to tripling the number of new products and increasing their speed to market by at least 30%. It plans to launch 1,900 new products and improve almost 2,000 more in the next 12 months.

Simon Roberts, chief executive of J Sainsbury, said: “This year’s financial results have been heavily influenced by the pandemic. Food and Argos sales are significantly higher, but the cost of keeping colleagues and customers safe during the pandemic has been high.”

He added: “Like our customers, we are all looking forward to things feeling more normal over the coming months and getting excited about a summer of celebration, but we are also cautious about the economic outlook. While there is much that we cannot predict in the year ahead, we are absolutely focused on delivering for our customers and shareholders.”

James Andrews, personal finance expert at money.co.uk, said: “While supermarkets have been seen as among the winners of the pandemic – it’s not been without cost. Sainsbury’s profit hit shows just how much they’ve spent on Covid safety, up to £485m, as well as the restructuring of Argos.

“It’s also shown how fast the move to online ordering has accelerated – with part of that £485m spent on new slots and capacity added. The outlook statement shows that this isn’t a flash in the pan, with extra capacity here for the long term and deals signed with the likes of Deliveroo not going away any time soon.”

Andrews added: “With fuel sales expected to be on the rise again too, we can expect continued strong performance – but competition from the likes of Aldi and Lidl hasn’t gone away. The following year for the industry will definitely be one to watch to see how the company reacts to society opening up, as well as how effective new price-matching schemes will be.”