Sainsbury’s Remains Cautious on Sales Outlook After Lockdown Bump
(Bloomberg) -- J Sainsbury Plc said it's still cautious on the outlook for the year even after first-quarter revenue benefited from heightened demand for groceries as people work from home.
- Comparative retail sales excluding fuel rose 8.2%, ahead of expectations, in the three months through June 27.
Key Insights
- While results so far this year have beat the company's base-case expectations, Britain's second-largest grocer said it's maintaining that outlook for the full year because good weather played a role in the outperformance. The forecast is for flat pretax profit in the year through March 2021.
- Optimism about the sales beat will be offset by Sainsbury's warning that extra costs of running stores may be slightly higher than the 500 million pounds ($619 million) it forecast earlier.
- Chief Executive Officer Simon Roberts, who took over the running of Sainsbury at the start of the month, said the business has changed fundamentally from four months ago. Online grocery sales have more than doubled in recent weeks, with the digital SmartShop program making up more than half of some supermarkets' revenue.
Market Reaction
- The shares have fallen 9.2% this year.
Get More
- Read the statement.
- See more details.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
-
Indians Are Travelling, But Not Every Journey Is A Holiday | The Week In Whys
Pilgrims, patients and working women are the real travellers, and the system hasn't quite caught up with them.
-
Getting To Work Costs Women More | The Reason Why
It is not just about women paying more than men. It is about women paying much more in cities than in villages.
-
AI Bias In Investing Cannot Be Eliminated, But It Can Be Governed
Framing is a particularly important example as identical financial information presented in terms of gains rather than losses can lead an LLM to reach a different assessment.
-
Joining The Dots | Dark Skies, Steady Diya: Why Hope Holds This Diwali
With war, a weak rupee and foreign outflows weighing on sentiment, policymakers at the NDTV World Summit and market veterans at NDTV Profit Ignite: Diwali Edition offered the same advice: stay invested and filter out the noise.
-
The Curious Case of Equitas Small Finance Bank And A CEO Who Quit For Stock
PN Vasudevan believes persistent investor concerns over a perceived conflict of interest had become a governance overhang on Equitas Small Finance Bank's stock, even as the lender improved profitability and asset quality.
-
Talking Points This Week: AI Cash Burn, A Tiger Comeback And An India That Still Finds Its Own Path
India is not immune to higher oil or tighter global liquidity, yet its earnings base is broader, its domestic policy levers are still available.
-
Foreign Investors Own Half Of HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank. An LTCG Cut Could Matter Most Here
Foreign portfolio investors have US$115 billion parked in HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank. If the government cuts long-term capital gains tax, Jefferies says returning foreign money could land here first.
