Commercial Property News

In announcing  their Q1 trading statement, Justin King, J Sainsbury Chief Executive, said;
 
"We've delivered another good performance ahead of the market  on top of strong growth last year.  Excluding fuel, total sales were up 4.4%, with like-for-like sales up 1.1% and up 8.2% on a two-year basis.  Contribution from net new space (excluding fuel) stepped up to 3.3% reflecting strong performance from new stores ahead of our expectations and the full impact of the 2009/10 opening programme.  Continued fuel price inflation has driven further growth with total sales including fuel up 7.6%.

In the quarter we opened one supermarket and completed two extensions and remain on track to deliver our accelerated space growth plans to add around 1.45 million sq ft in 2010/11.  We continue to actively manage our valuable property estate  and completed the sale and leaseback of three fully developed stores for proceeds of £85 million.

We have made a good start to the financial year in line with our expectations.  While we continue to expect the consumer environment to remain challenging, our universal customer appeal, unique loyalty offer and accelerated growth strategy mean we are well placed to make continued good progress."

The firm, which trails market leader Tesco and Asda in terms of revenues, runs about 525 supermarkets and 300 convenience stores, said today that it was benefiting from a better-than-expected performance from new stores, as well as good growth online and in non-food sales.