Sainsbury's warns of consumer electronics shortages this Christmas

LONDON (Reuters) - British consumers should expect a shortage of consumer electronics products in Sainsbury's stores this Christmas due to the global delays of semi-conductor chips, the boss of the supermarket group said on Thursday.

"I think in that category particularly there will be less stock available than would normally be the case," CEO Simon Roberts told reporters after Sainsbury's published first-half results.

"That's well understood, I think customers are hearing that and are planning early and shopping early."

Roberts said shipping delays had also caused Sainsbury's to push back its traditional toys promotion. The group also owns retailer Argos.

"That's going to happen next week, a couple of weeks later than normal," he said.

Roberts said in a normal year it took about 24 days to ship containers from Asia. However, this year it had been above 40 days.

(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Kate Holton)