Sainsbury’s has reported a 4.9% annual jump in sales in its Q1 results, as the supermarket giant also hailed its highest market share since 2016.

Boosted by a 5% jump in grocery sales, Sainsbury’s announced that its Q1 total sales reached £7.8bn, in the period covering the 16 weeks to 21 June.

Sainsbury’s said it was committed to sustaining a strong competitive position in the year ahead and expects to continue to grow its grocery volumes ahead of the market. The supermarket expects to deliver a retail underlying operating profit of around £1bn and retail free cash flow of more than £500m in its 2025/26 financial year.

The company has also now gained market share for the third consecutive year, which it said reflected “strong consistent delivery of value, quality and service”, and “excellent availability”.

Sales in the supermarket’s Argos division, which struggled with falls in three out of four quarters last year, registered a significant improvement in Q1 this year, with Argos recording 4.4% rise in sales growth to reach £1.1bn.

Sainsbury’s chief executive, Simon Roberts, said: “Our winning combination of great value, outstanding quality, excellent availability and leading customer service has driven further share gains, reaching our highest market share in almost a decade. We’re delivering our strongest ever customer offer and many more people are choosing us for their main grocery shop.

“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.”

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