Sainsbury’s general merchandise business has hit £1bn of annual sales for the first time.

Sainsbury’s general merchandise business has hit £1bn of annual sales for the first time.

The milestone follows its Christmas performance when it reported that general merchandise sales grew by a third compared to the previous year.

The general merchandise range, which includes homewares, cookware and domestic appliances, is growing at up to three times the rate of food.

Roger Burnley, Sainsbury’s Managing Director General Merchandise, Clothing and Logistics, said: “We’ve invested in getting our general merchandise offer right for customers over the past few years and reaching £1 billion in annual sales shows this has been worth it.

“We know that customers who buy from our non-food range spend more with us overall and the fact that we are still able to expand the range to even more stores shows the huge potential for Sainsbury’s.”

Over the past year cookware has grown at 16%, and small electricals has grown 21%.

Fewer than one in five Sainsbury’s supermarkets have a full non-food offer currently, equating to 31% of the population within a 15-minute drive of the full range.

Sainsbury’s has direct sourcing offices for general merchandise in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Bangladesh.