Sainsbury’s, the supermarket behemoth, has announced a 5 per cent wage increase for its staff following a record-breaking Christmas season. The UK’s second-largest grocery chain, trailing only Tesco, reported robust sales over the festive period, with party food and bottles of fizz in high demand.
Consequently, it informed shareholders on Friday that it is set to meet its annual profit targets. Sainsbury’s also revealed plans to award its staff a 5 per cent pay rise in 2025 to help them cope with the “particularly tough cost inflation environment”.
This pay hike will benefit 118,000 hourly-paid workers, raising the minimum annual salary for a full-time worker outside London from £22,882 to £24,026 by August. Sainsbury’s and Argos employees will see their hourly wages increase from £12 to £12.45 in March, followed by another rise to £12.60 in August.
London-based workers will receive a pay rise from £13.15 to £13.70 in March, which will further increase to £13.85 in August. This comes ahead of the Government’s planned national minimum wage increase in April, which will see a 6.7 per cent rise to a minimum of £12.21 per hour for workers aged 21 and above.
(Image: PA Archive/PA Images)
The new pay deal was announced as Sainsbury’s reported a surge in sales for the latest quarter. The retail giant said overall group sales, excluding fuel, rose by 2.7 per cent in the 16 weeks leading up to January 4, driven by strong momentum in its grocery business.
Sainsbury’s has reported a 4.1 per cent increase in grocery sales, boosting its UK grocery market share, including a surge in sales just before Christmas as shoppers left their festive purchases later than usual. The strong performance in groceries, attributed partly to a close to 40 per cent increase in the sale of party food, helped balance out the lower returns from the Argos division.
Consequently, the company is on track for its annual financial targets, projecting retail underlying operating profits to hit mid-range within its £1.01 billion to £1.06 billion forecast. Sainsbury’s CEO Simon Roberts shared with investors: “Driven by our leading combination of quality, value and service, we have achieved seven consecutive quarters of volume performance ahead of the market and further accelerated our two-year volume growth.”
He also remarked on the success during the festive period, stating: “The strength of our customer service and operational performance stood us apart in delivering our biggest ever Christmas.”
Adding that, “Customers shopped later than ever and we achieved our highest ever sales in the final days before Christmas.”
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