Sainsbury chief executive Sir Peter Davis took a step on the long road back for the supermarket group, by unveiling modest like-for-like sales growth of 0.7% for the latest 12 weeks. He says: 'We are on track, and pleased with our progress'.
He expects profits in the half to March to improve, making the year's total broadly similar to last year. Where stores have been refurbished, sales have soared 7.1%.
'It does seem that spending money works.' says Davis. He is speeding up the facelifts to between 100 and 150 stores next year.
Investors have faith in him, despite his 'massive' task. WestLB's Philip Dorgan compares the 0.7% sales growth with recent figures of 6.7% for Morrison, 5% for Asda, a likely 5% for Tesco and 15.4% at Waitrose.
'At some point, sales have to recover if Sainsbury is to deliver its target cost savings and its promise of profit growth next year,' he says. Sir Peter says: 'When I arrived last March, we had 16 months of profit decline and customer numbers falling. My priority was to stop the decline and restore confidence. We expect better like-for-like sales next year'.
He moves Sainsbury's HQ to the old Daily Mirror site at London's Holborn Circus in July. It houses 2,500, and not all Sainsbury's present 3,000 HQ staff will make it.