Sainsbury’s has revealed a pre-tax loss of £72m for the year to 14 March - its first loss in a decade.
It compares to a profit last year of £898m and follows losses of £792m for Morrisons and £6.4bn for Tesco, one of the biggest losses in UK corporate history.
Sainsbury’s also revealed like-for-like sales were down 0.2% while underlying group sales were down 0.9% to £26.bn (2013/14: £26.3bn).
The retailer opened 98 convenience stores during the year and delivered more than 16% convenience sales growth with one to two stores still opening each week. Online sales increased in the number of customer orders by 13%.
"Strong foundations"
Mike Coupe, chief executive, said: "The UK marketplace is changing faster than at any time in the past 30 years which has impacted our profits, like-for-like sales and market share. However, we are making good progress with our strategy, and our investment in price and quality is showing encouraging early signs of volume and transaction growth.
"We know that our customers still want the best-quality food at great prices and our strategy is built on our strong foundations of selling great food with a focus on quality, provenance and sustainability. At the same time, we know that our customers want value for money and we have therefore invested in lowering our prices; our prices versus our competitors have never been better.
“I believe we are taking the right decisions to ensure we remain fit for the future and are able to capitalise on our many growth opportunities."
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