Good food
for all of us
Welcome to our Annual Report and Financial Statements 2025. You can download an interactive PDF of the report and financials below.
Good food
Financial highlights
52 weeks to 1 March 2025
3.1%
Retail sales growth (exc. fuel)
£1,036m
Retail underlying operating profit,
up 7.2% YoY
£531m
Retail free cash flow
£242m
Statutory profit after tax,
up 76.6% YoY
9.0%
Return on capital employed,
up 70bps YoY
23.1p
Total underlying basic earnings per share,
up 4.5% YoY
Strategy overview
Reflections on year one of Next Level Sainsbury's; building on strong foundations to deliver further grocery market share gains and significant operating leverage.
Non-financial highlights
£1bn
Invested in lowering prices over the past four years
58%
Increase in hourly colleague pay
since 2018
£33.8m
Raised for good causes in 2024/25
52.8%
Reduction in our absolute greenhouse gas emissions from our own operations1
373%
More surplus food redistributed to communities2
21%
Reduction in own brand plastic packaging from our baselines3
1 Versus our 2018/19 baseline
2 Versus 2019/20 baseline
3 Versus baseline: 2018 CY for food and 2020 CY for general merchandise
Plan for Better
For an update on our progress towards our sustainability targets, as well as information on our governance and other business practices, you can download our 2025 Sustainability Report below. It includes leadership perspectives, key case studies and learnings, as well as our performance scorecard.
Chair's letter
"With more than 150 years of heritage at the heart of Britain’s relationship with food, we understand the vital role we play in ensuring the UK food system remains strong, sustainable and accessible for generations to come."
Martin Scicluna, Chair
Chief Executive’s letter
"It’s no coincidence that this year has been one of our strongest, reflecting four years of investment to improve the fundamentals of this business. We’ve delivered great value, introduced more new and innovative products to our shelves, given more space in our stores to our core food ranges and continued to lead our sector on pay increases for our hourly colleagues. As a result, we’ve grown grocery volume market share, won more loyal customers and continue to deliver market-leading customer service, all whilst making our business more sustainable and resilient for the future."
Simon Roberts, Chief Executive
- Our purpose in action
Making good food joyful
Sainsbury’s is all about making good food exciting, delicious, affordable and easy to enjoy. Whether it’s a big weekly shop, a quick bite to eat, or a special occasion, our wide range and new products help make every moment joyful.
Joyful, great quality food is the foundation of all of our Sainsbury's own brand ranges. It’s food that is well-sourced, grown sustainably, improves animal health and welfare and supports communities.
We have a real passion for innovation. We've more than doubled our rate of innovation since starting our Food First plan and in the last year alone, we added 1,300 new products including 600 in our premium Taste the Difference range.
Our Taste the Difference range continues to deliver exceptional quality and flavour, helping customers enjoy something truly delicious every day, without compromise. We've grown Taste the Difference sales by more than 50% since the start of our Food First plan, with one in three baskets now featuring a product from the range.
- Our purpose in action
Making good food accessible
We're on a mission to ensure that great food is within reach for everyone, everywhere.
Through our largest investment in store expansion in over a decade, we're bringing more choice, convenience, and quality to more communities across the UK. We’re opening 40 supermarkets and convenience stores in key locations and are increasing food space in many of our existing stores, so that more customers can access more of our good food, more often.
We recognise that good food isn’t shared equally. One in five people in the UK face food poverty. That’s why, through our Nourish the Nation partnership with Comic Relief, we’ve helped provide over 47 million meals focusing support when and where it’s needed most.
- Our purpose in action
Making good food affordable
We understand how important it is for customers to enjoy great quality at prices they can trust and are committed to offering great value on the products they buy most often.
That’s why we’ve invested over £1 billion in prices over the past four years. We want to make good food affordable for everyone, whether that’s through our Low Everyday Prices, Aldi Price Match or Nectar Prices. We're also investing in Stamford Street, our own-label value range, offering customers great value on staple items.
In 2024 we became the first retailer to extend Aldi Price Match across our supermarkets, convenience stores and online. Today 75% of products within our Aldi Price Match are Healthy or Better for You choices.
Customers can also access lower prices on thousands of Sainsbury's products and favourite household brands through Nectar Prices. Since its launch in 2023, it has transformed the way that customers experience value at Sainsbury's.
People now know that the purple of Nectar means truly great value. Last year customers saved more than £2 billion through Nectar Prices and we now have over 9,000 offers available.
