Sainsbury’s ‘has benefited’ from M&S cyber-attack and warm weather – London Business News | London Wallet

Sainsbury’s has reported their highest market share for almost a decade as the warm weather and M&S cyber-attack helped sales.

Sainsbury’s is the UK’s second largest supermarket and saw customers “go somewhere nearby” for food and drink.

Chief executive Simon Roberts said, “If a particular store is lower on stock, in the moment, a customer will go somewhere nearby.”

“Everybody has benefited a little bit as a result (of the attack),” he added.

Customers turned to Sainsbury’s for lunchtime food as M&S was forced to suspend all online orders, this in turn had an impact on availability in their stores.

They have since restored their stock values and their website is back up and running for online orders.

In the 16 weeks to 21 Juns, Sainsbury’s sales in the first quarter soared 4.9% helping to achieve their highest market share since 2016.

Grocery sales rose 5% in the quarter and clothing and general merchandise increased 4.2% and Argos was up by 4.4%.

Simon Roberts, chief executive of Sainsbury’s, said, “We know how important it is that we provide consistently great value and we have built further on our strong competitive position, improving our prices against all key competitors year-on-year.

“We’re now offering even more opportunities for customers to save on the items they buy most often through the biggest Aldi price match commitment in the market, covering around 800 everyday essentials.”