THE recovery of supermarket chain Sainsbury's exceeded expectations yesterday after the group posted its fifth quarter of sales growth in a row.
The retailer, buoyed by the success of its Try Something New campaign, had a like-for-like sales rise of 5.3 per cent for the 12 weeks to last Saturday, beating expectations of a four per cent rise.
Chief executive Justin King said an extra one million customers visited its stores in the past six months.
He said the growth "shows that customers are noticing the many improvements we have been making".
Recent data from research group TNS showed Sainsbury's accounted for 16.2 per cent of grocery sales in the UK, just behind Asda but a long way from the 30.4 per cent controlled by industry leader Tesco.
Sainsbury's also reported higher sales of organic produce and a surge in demand for its premium Taste the Difference range.
The Sainsbury's fightback - following the first loss in its 135-year history - included the recruitment of more staff and cutting prices by 2.2 per cent over the past quarter.
As part of the Making Sainsbury's Great Again initiative, the chain aims to add £2.5bn to total sales by March 2008.
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