Following a promising last quarter, Sainsbury's Justin King has said that his operation could overtake Asda into second place in the UK grocery standings "in the fullness of time if we keep growing and they [Asda] don't." His comments came as Sainsbury's posted a 2.1 per cent rise in like for like sales in the 16 weeks to 2 Oct.
Sainsbury's currently has a 16 per cent share of the UK grocery market, compared to Asda's 17.2 per cent and Tesco's 30.8 per cent. In the past week, Tesco has said that its underlying UK sales grew by just 0.4 per cent in the quarter to 28 August, while Asda's were down 0.4 per cent.
Sainsbury's has an ambitious store opening programme planned for the next year or so, with 1.45 million sq ft of new space set to com on stream by the end of 2011. However, with Asda's recent purchase of Netto stores, they have their own expansion in the running too. (7 Oct)
© 2010 - ESM: European Supermarket Magazine
