- Sainsbury upgrades profit forecasts
- Ocado enters Spanish market
- Oil price hits new high on OPEC's failure to reach agreement
Sainsburys and Ocado continue supermarket winning streak
J Sainsbury (SBRY) upgraded its forecast for underlying pre-tax profit forecasts for the year ended in March 2022, after sales in the first quarter beat expectations of a decline. The supermarket said that retail sales (excluding fuel) ticked up 1.6 per cent, despite a tough comparator period when most other retailers were closed.
The company is now targeting underlying pre-tax profits of at least £660m, up from £356m in the last financial year. Its shares were largely flat in early trading, although have advanced 23 per in the year to date. Although, it is still the second most shorted stock in London.
Meanwhile Ocado (OCDO) shares nudged up 1 per cent this morning, after it revealed that it has bagged a deal with a major Spanish supermarket chain, Alcampol, to develop its online business. Ocado and Auchan will build a warehouse to serve the Madrid region from 2024, and will partner across both food and non-food business. Alcampol has also agreed to use Ocado’s ‘in-store fulfilment’ (ISF) software in its hypermarkets to “enable more efficient picking from stores”.
The signing will be regarded as a significant win for Ocado’s growing technology business - although developing the division has been an expensive affair. The company still has not settled into the black, but its interim results showed that its pre-tax losses had narrowed to £23.6m, compared with £40.6m at the same point last year.
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