Retail Week looks ahead to the next seven days, with updates from Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Next and the latest grocery market share data all on the agenda.
Grocery market share
Kantar and Nielsen both unveil their latest snapshots of the grocery sector on Tuesday, May 2.
According to Nielsen’s latest barometer, Morrisons was the only member of the big four to grow sales in the 12 weeks to March 25, recording a 0.6% uplift year-on-year.
Frozen-food specialist Iceland continued its resurgence, enjoying a 5.2% spike during the period.
The success made it the fastest-growing grocer outside of the discounters, although Aldi and Lidl’s sales spikes of 12.6% and 10.5% respectively left rivals in the shade.
Sainsbury’s
The supermarket giant reveals its preliminary results on Wednesday, May 3 – its first full-year figures since last September’s acquisition of Argos owner Home Retail Group.
Analysts expect underlying pre-tax profit to come in around £578m, down slightly from the £578m it recorded in 2015/16.
However, Sainsbury’s revealed in March that full-year like-for-likes dipped 0.6% excluding fuel, and investors will be hoping that hasn’t dented its bottom line.
The grocer is focusing on integrating the Argos and Habitat businesses as boss Mike Coupe aims to create a food and non-food giant to rival the likes of John Lewis and Amazon.
Morrisons
The Bradford-based business updates the market with details of its first-quarter trading performance on Thursday, May 4.
Morrisons is building up a head of steam under boss David Potts, who has led the supermarket chain to five successive quarters of like-for-like sales growth.
Far from resting on those laurels, former Tesco executive Potts is planning to pump up underlying pre-tax profits above the £337m it recorded in the year to January 29.
To do so, Morrisons is focusing on improving customer service levels, enhancing its local credentials, developing “popular and useful services” and rebuilding its convenience business through a tie-up with petrol forecourt operator Rontec.
Next
The retail bellwether will unveil its first-quarter trading update on Thursday, 4 May.
The update follows on from Next admitting in March that stocking mistakes had helped contribute to its first annual profit fall in eight years.
Next has already prepared the market for tough trading ahead by predicting profits would drop further this current financial year to between £680m and £780m.
In-store sales have also been falling at Next, offsetting the continued rise in online sales, leading to the retailer predicting stores could be “managed down profitably”.
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