Sainsbury’s posts sales boost and hits highest market share in decade

The grocer reported a 4.9% rise in total retail sales (excluding fuel) to £8.92bn for the 16 weeks to 21 June 2025, up from £8.51bn during the same quarter last year. 

Sainsbury’s also said it had reached its highest market share in almost a decade, more customers picked it as their first choice for food, and it had clocked up 30 successive periods of growth in primary customer numbers and gained market share for the third consecutive year. 

Like-for-like sales excluding fuel climbed 4.7% for the period, versus 2.9% growth for Q1 2024.

Total grocery sales grew 5%, while GM and clothing grew 4.2% to £455m compared to a 4.5% drop last year. Sales of its clothing brand TU grew 8%, “outperforming the market”, with womenswear up 13% owing to “improved design and strong availability” as well as warmer weather. 

Sainsbury’s Local delivered 6% growth, helped by “continued investment” in the space and enhanced food-to-go offerings, while online grocery sales grew 6% year on year, driven by growth in order frequency and basket size. 

Sales at Argos also improved, up 4.4% to £1.13bn ”ahead of a subdued, highly competitive and deflationary general merchandise market” helped by the stint of warm and dry weather and against a weak comparative.

Sainsbury’s chief executive Simon Roberts said: “Our winning combination of great value, outstanding quality, excellent availability and leading customer service has driven further share gains, reaching our highest market share in almost a decade. We’re delivering our strongest ever customer offer and many more people are choosing us for their main grocery shop.

“We know how important it is that we provide consistently great value and we have built further on our strong competitive position, improving our prices against all key competitors year-on-year. We’re now offering even more opportunities for customers to save on the items they buy most often through the biggest Aldi Price Match commitment in the market, covering around 800 everyday essentials. As a result, our Value for Money customer satisfaction scores are the highest they have ever been.”

Sainsbury’s held its guidance of underlying operating profit of around £1bn and free cash flow of more than £500m, and said it expected to continue growing grocery volumes ahead of the market.

“We have great momentum, growing faster than the market for three consecutive years and we are well set to deliver another strong performance over the summer.” said Roberts.