To the relief of British households, grocery price inflation is falling. The jury is still out on whether the big four supermarkets have avoided repeating past mistakes in handing over more market share to the discounters.
Yet J Sainsbury seems to be balancing pricing with profits better than it did during the last great financial downturn. The chain may not seem a likely place for hard-pressed shoppers to search for value, but it has taken share from the likes of Aldi and Lidl back for the first time, according to Simon Roberts, Sainsbury’s boss.
It means that underlying pre-tax profits this year are expected to come in at between £670 million and £700 million, at the upper end of the guidance range. Retail free cashflow
