British supermarket chain J Sainsbury has said that its like-for-like retail sales fell 1.1% , excluding fuel, for the first quarter ended 7 June 2014.
However, the group’s total quaterly sales rose 1%, excluding fuel.
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The general merchandise and clothing businesses continued to grow strongly in the quarter with clothing in particular performing well delivering double-digit like-for-like sales growth, the company said in a statement.
During the quarter, convenience sales grew by over 18% year-on-year. Groceries online grew by over 1%.
J Sainsbury opened 27 new convenience stores and refurbished a further 12 convenience stores during the quarter.
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"We remain on track to deliver around two new convenience stores per week and around 750,000 square feet of new space this year," the statement added.
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By GlobalDataSainsbury’s said it was confident it would outperform supermarket peers through the remainder of the year.
Justin King, outgoing chief executive of the company, said the escalating price war remained a skirmish but one that Sainsbury could not remain aloof from.
Last week rival Tesco reported a 3.8% fall in first-quarter like-for-like sales. Morrisons also posted a 7.1% slump in first-quarter sales, though Asda reported a rise of 0.1%.
