Sainsbury’s to raise staff pay after Christmas sales increase
It also stated that promotions over Black Friday and Christmas helped to boost Argos sales, which rose 1.1% over the six weeks but dipped 1.4% overall during the third quarter
Sainsbury’s has announced that it is set to increase staff pay after it saw its sales rise 3.7% for the 16 weeks ended 4 January 2025.
Alongside this, Sainsbury’s saw its festive period sales rise 3.8% in the 6 weeks ended 4 January.
As a result, the supermarket will split a 5% pay rise for its hourly-paid staff into two separate rises in March and August.
Its grocery sales increased 4.1% over the quarter, and rose 3.8% over Christmas, as volume sales were 6% higher than two years ago.
It also stated that promotions over Black Friday and Christmas helped to boost Argos sales, which rose 1.1% over the six weeks but dipped 1.4% overall during the third quarter.
Simon Roberts, CEO of J Sainsbury plc, said: “We have won grocery market share for the fifth consecutive Christmas, with more customers choosing Sainsbury’s for their big shop. Driven by our leading combination of quality, value and service, we have achieved seven consecutive quarters of volume performance ahead of the market and further accelerated our two-year volume growth.
“The strength of our customer service and operational performance stood us apart in delivering our biggest ever Christmas. Customers shopped later than ever and we achieved our highest ever sales in the final days before Christmas. I would like to recognise and thank all of our colleagues who worked so hard to deliver record customer satisfaction and our suppliers who helped us deliver our best ever Christmas availability.”
He added: “Customers trust Sainsbury’s to deliver great quality food and drinks. Over half of big Christmas baskets contained a Taste the Difference product, helping Taste the Difference deliver sales growth of 16 per cent, outperforming all key competitors. Customers chose Sainsbury’s for their big festive celebrations with party food sales up nearly 40 per cent and more than 200 bottles of fizz sold every minute in the key days ahead of Christmas, over one third of which were Taste the Difference.
“Customers are also recognising our consistently strong value more and more, helped by record numbers of customers shopping Nectar Prices, driving gains from competitors as we attract new big basket customers to Sainsbury’s.”
