Sainsbury's boss Mike Coupe: You don’t need maths degree to shop at our stores

Sainsbury’s boss Mike Coupe today insisted shoppers should not need a “maths degree” to work out supermarket deals as he stuck by his strategy to cut Bogof deals amid falling sales.

Same-store sales at the grocer dropped a better-than-feared 0.8% in the 12 weeks to June 4 after it axed its Brand Match price-matching system and cut promotions to 23% of sales from last year’s more than 30%.

“People don’t want a maths degree to go shopping and we’ll continue to make it easier and easier for customers to find where the value is,” Coupe said.

Price cuts on basics like whole chickens, down from £3.50 to £2.95, and cheese, down from £2 to £1.75 for 250g of grated Cheddar, were driving growth in sales volumes, he added.

Sainsbury’s instead put the sales decline down to food price deflation, as well as quirks in the quarter including poor April weather. Big supermarkets have been slashing prices to fend off the challenge from discounters Aldi and Lidl.

Bernstein’s Bruno Monteyne said Sainsbury’s, which has led the fight against low-cost rivals, should outperform the market “thanks to it being a multi-channel, differentiated and service-orientated retailer”.