Supermarket group Sainsbury’s, owners of furniture brand Habitat and catalogue retailer Argos, has reported a growth in half year sales.
According to its latest trading update for the 28 weeks ended 13 September 2025, total group revenues rose 2.8% to £17.5bn from £17.1bn against the prior year.
Retail sales were up 4.8% to £15.5bn, while underlying pre-tax profit resulted at £340m, up 10% from £309m year-on-year.
Within its segments, Grocery sales rose 5.3% and Sainsbury’s General Merchandise & Clothing sales were up 3.3%, while Argos sales increased 2.3% to £1.9bn.
For Argos, this growth was supported by “warm and dry Summer weather in an otherwise subdued, competitive and deflationary market”.
“We continue to strengthen our online offer, improving the digital customer journey and driving higher online traffic and basket size,” the group said. “We have a strong trading plan in place as we head into the important Black Friday and Christmas trading period.”
During the period, the group upgraded its Argos App, including enhancing product pages and improving findability, enabling app exclusive offers and making it easier and faster for app customers to collect their products.
“More customers are using the app as a result, with positive customer feedback and strong revenue growth as we grow loyalty and encourage greater shopping frequency,” it said.
Furthermore, having focused in recent years on relocating the Argos estate from standalone stores to stores and collection points inside Sainsbury’s, the group is now focusing on optimising its 1,100 points of presence to provide the best customer journey at the same time as reducing cost to serve.
“We are improving the speed and ease of collection for customers, giving more self-service options and implementing an improved service model through modernising in-store technology,” the group added.
Simon Roberts, Chief Executive of J Sainsbury plc, said: “We started this year with one clear priority – to sustain the strong competitive position we have built over the last five years.
“We have delivered on this in the first half, with focused and effective investment to ease cost-of-living pressures, keeping price inflation behind the wider market and delivering our winning combination of great value, trusted quality and leading service. This has driven continued grocery volume growth ahead of the market for a fifth consecutive year and a profit performance ahead of our expectations.
“Our offer has never been stronger. So, while we expect the market to remain highly competitive, our momentum gives us real confidence as we head into Christmas and we have strengthened our profit guidance.”
