Sainsbury's Interims

[idpickering]

· Underlying profit growth of £51 million driven by Argos synergies, delivered ahead of schedule

· Food and general merchandise sales benefited from the hot summer; grocery sales grew 1.2 per cent and general merchandise sales grew 1.5 per cent, with total food transactions up 0.6 per cent, outperforming the market1

· Continued pressure on general merchandise margins

· Clothing sales declined 1 per cent due to changes in promotional phasing

· Groceries Online grew nearly 7 per cent and Convenience grew over 4 per cent

· We have transformed the way we run Sainsbury's stores, fundamentally changing how our 135,000 managers and colleagues work. The new, leaner management structure creates significant savings which we have reinvested into colleague pay. We now have one fair, consistent and more flexible contract for all Sainsbury's store colleagues and pay them a market leading rate of £9.20 per hour

· We are maximising the productivity of our supermarket space. Adding Argos stores in Sainsbury's and repurposing our food space in a number of our stores is driving an increase in trading intensity2

· We opened 60 Argos stores in Sainsbury's supermarkets in the half, bringing the total to 251 and they continue to trade well. We also have 233 order collection points in supermarkets and convenience stores

· During the half we delivered Argos EBITDA synergies of £63 million (£58 million EBIT), bringing the cumulative total to £150 million EBITDA

· Since the half year we have realised the £160 million Argos EBITDA synergy target, nine months ahead of the original schedule

And later;

Dividend

Interim dividend of 3.1 pence per share, in line with our policy of paying 30 per cent of prior full year dividend. This will be paid on 21 December 2018 to shareholders on the Register of Members at the close of business on 16 November 2018.

https://www.investegate.co.uk/sainsbury ... 00067018G/

[daveh]

Which means three dividends this calendar year for my HYP as last years interim was paid on 2nd Jan. Not that it makes much of a difference really, just makes all my nice stats look odd.

[funduffer]

Which means three dividends this calendar year for my HYP as last years interim was paid on 2nd Jan. Not that it makes much of a difference really, just makes all my nice stats look odd.

Yes it is a bit odd.

I have always received SBRY interim dividend in the first week in January, until this year.

Extra Christmas present, but messes up the year end stats!

FD

[bluedonkey]

The technical term for that is "swings and roundabouts".

[Arborbridge]

The feeble month of December could do with that dividend. But it does mess things up for YOY comparisons, though I think the effect exceeding small.


Arb.

[daveh]

The feeble month of December could do with that dividend. But it does mess things up for YOY comparisons, though I think the effect exceeding small.


Arb.

This December has been almost 100% better than previous years though still less than average at about 6% of annual income. Previous years it has been less than 3% of annual income. It will make a very small difference in my YOY on calculations and will look odd in my year by year dividend progression for SBRY. It will look like a big dividend increase this year and a cut next year. I'm still going to be well down on predicted income this year - not due to dividend cuts, but because I've not been adding any new money to my HYP this year, just reinvesting dividends, my prediction for income included significant additional investments in my HYP, but I've needed to rebuild cash savings after a car purchase last year and spend money on my house.

[Arborbridge]

This December has been almost 100% better than previous years though still less than average at about 6% of annual income. Previous years it has been less than 3% of annual income. It will make a very small difference in my YOY on calculations and will look odd in my year by year dividend progression for SBRY. It will look like a big dividend increase this year and a cut next year. I'm still going to be well down on predicted income this year - not due to dividend cuts, but because I've not been adding any new money to my HYP this year, just reinvesting dividends, my prediction for income included significant additional investments in my HYP, but I've needed to rebuild cash savings after a car purchase last year and spend money on my house.

My Decembers have varied between 3.5% and 5% of annual income. It's the worst month, always.

Arb.