Aisle by aisle

6 May 2015 By Robert Cole

The price war at British supermarkets is entering a new phase. Big-picture strategic shifts and financial redeployments are giving way to grind. The 3 pct operating margin for the year to March at the 5 bln pound Sainsbury may define what is now realistic across the industry.

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J Sainsbury, the UK supermarket chain, said on May 6 that it made a loss before tax of 72 million pounds in the year to March 14. It made a profit of 898 million pounds in the previous year.

The loss was due to a previously declared 628 million pound property value impairment charge. The company said its underlying operating profit from retail operations – calculated before interest, tax, a contribution from Sainsbury’s Bank and a share of post-tax profit from joint ventures – was 720 million pounds, 17.5 percent less than in the year to March 2014.

Group sales, excluding VAT sales tax but including fuel, fell 0.7 percent to 23.8 billion pounds.

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