Sainsbury’s has today announced that its convenience stores have achieved sales of £3bn for the first time.
Sales in the group's convenience business, which comprises over 800 stores across the UK, grew 10% year-on-year in the financial year to date (6% ahead of the market) and are up 7% on pre-pandemic levels.
This week’s figures also show that there have been over 45 million more customer visits to Sainsbury’s Locals in last year, driven by more people returning to the workplace and wanting the flexibility of being able to shop how and when they want.
As part of its plan to put food back at its heart, the business is focused on delivering on great value food and convenient shopping and as customers return to physical stores, today’s announcement shows that they want to be able to choose how and where to shop.
Over the past year, Sainsbury’s has opened 12 convenience stores and has plans to open over 20 more in the next 12 months as customer demand continues to grow. Locations for these stores are carefully selected to ensure they will best serve customers and are tailored to suit the needs of each community.
The majority of Sainsbury’s convenience store estate are Locals and more than 130 of these specifically cater for busy customers looking for ‘food-on-the-move’ in urban areas.
There are also nine Neighbourhood Hubs, a new format that offers the best “in neighbourhood” one-stop offer, featuring product choice and community at their heart. These Hubs cater to the shift seen throughout the pandemic across customer behaviour towards longer shopping missions.
Clo Moriarty, Retail and Digital Director, shared,“We know how much customers value being able to shop when and how they want, particularly in the post-pandemic world.
'Convenience is a growing part of our business and seeing our convenience stores reach today’s £3 billion sales milestone is a huge achievement and testament to how we are delivering what customers want. I’d also like to thank our colleagues – they are at the very heart of our business and we couldn’t have achieved today’s milestone without them.”