The CEO of Sainsbury’s has acknowledged that life is “tough for millions on households” right now, resulting in customers looking to spread the cost of Christmas starting with an earlier shop.
The boss of the Big 4 grocer, Simon Roberts, revealed consumers are “buying little and more often” as they plan for Christmas, saying that value will be more important than ever during this years festivities.
“That’s the reason that in our plans for Christmas we’re going to do as much as we can to really help customers beat the impact of inflation with great value in our offer,” he said.
Roberts also said Sainsbury’s was “closely watching” the recent bird flu developments that have seen farmers across the country warn of Christmas turkey shortages.
However, he claims the Big 4 grocer was well prepared for potential disruptions.
“We’ve become accustomed and planful about how we deal with supply chain challenges, in fact last year there was quite a significant concern going into Christmas about the shortage of workers and CO2 in the poultry industry, and in the final few days we had plenty of turkeys for everyone with great support from our suppliers.
“The good news is that frozen turkeys are already cold and frozen and about one-third of our turkey volume comes through that route. We’ve ordered more turkeys overall this year than we sold last year so we have a buffer overall in our plan.
“That being said, avian flu is a serious issue and one that we’re watching very closely and we’re not complacent about this issue at all.”
“We really get how tough it is for millions of households right now,” Roberts said.
“Customers are watching every penny and every pound and we know that they are relying on us to keep food prices as low as we can.”
This comes as according to the CEO of the supermarket giant more customers are switching to own-label products in a bid to secure better value.
In regards to the World Cup, which is taking place during the festive period, Roberts admitted the timing was “interesting”, however he said the business is preparing “offers and deals on the products that people are likely to be interested in” as it expects a rise in at-home viewers.
He said: “These conditions are so unprecedented, we’ve not had a World Cup just before Christmas and, as far as I can remember, we’ve not been in a situation with such a challenging time for millions of households.
“So all we can do is make sure we’re doing everything possible to help customers manage their budgets.”
Yesterday, Sainsbury’s reported decrease in profits for the six months ended 12 September 2022, as it shields customers from rising costs amid the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
The Big 4 grocer revealed that underlying pre-tax profits had dropped by 8% to £340 million, despite seeing a 4.4% increase in sales across the group.
