Britain's second-largest supermarket group, Sainsbury's, said on Thursday it had agreed to acquire 10 leasehold stores from home improvement retailer Homebase to covert into supermarkets.
Sainsbury's said the acquired stores were in key target locations that would grow its supermarket coverage across England, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
1,000 Jobs
The transaction is expected to complete early next month with a gross investment value of about £130 million pounds (€154 million). The first of the stores will be opened next summer, with all sites expected to be converted by the end of 2025.
The supermarket group said the new stores would add about 235,000 sq ft (21,832 sq m) to its trading space, and create about 1,000 new Sainsbury's jobs.
Argos Business
In July, Sainsburys reported a 3% rise in first-quarter underlying sales, though weather-related weakness in non-food categories partially offset strong demand for groceries.
Britain’s second-largest supermarket group, which has a UK market share of 15.2%, said grocery sales rose 4.8% in the 16 weeks to 22 June.
However, general merchandise and clothing sales fell 4.3% and sales at the group’s Argos business dropped by 6.2%.
Banking Business
In February, it set a new three-year cost-saving target of £1 billion (€1.19 billion) and vowed to step up capital expenditure and boost returns for shareholders.
In June, Sainsburys agreed to sell most of its banking business to NatWest.
'Winning From Competitors'
"We are pleased with our market-beating grocery performance," said Simon Roberts, chief executive of the group in July.
“We’ve been winning from competitors every month for 15 months, as more and more people are choosing Sainsburys for their big weekly shop.”
