Sainsbury's Like-For-Like Sales Down 1.9%

Supermarket giant Sainsbury's saw like-for-like sales fall 1.9% in the last quarter, excluding fuel.

It is the fifth consecutive quarterly drop recorded by the retail chain, and is down on the 1.7% fall in the previous period.

Chief executive Mike Coupe said: "The trading environment remains challenging and the decisions we have taken to improve our competitiveness are reflected in our quarterly performance."

And he went on in the firm's trading statement: "We expect the market to remain challenging for the forseeable future.

"Food deflation is likely to persist for the rest of this calendar year, and competitive pressures on price will continue."

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