Sainsburys Full-Year Report 2022

Financial highlights

• Retail sales up 5.2%, ex. fuel sales up 2.0%. Statutory Group sales (ex. VAT) up 5.3%. Q4 ex. fuel retail sales up 7.1% (7.8% like-for-like)
• Grocery sales up 3.0%, driven by inflation and improved market share performance. Q4 grocery sales up 7.4%
• General Merchandise (GM) sales down 0.4%, with Argos gaining share in a weak general merchandise market. Q4 GM sales up 7.6% (Argos sales up 9.3%)
• Underlying profit before tax of £690 million, down 5% and at the top end of £630 million to £690 million guidance range. Up 18% versus 2019/20 pre-pandemic UPBT of £586 million. Year-on-year decline reflects annualisation of COVID-19 driven grocery volume, investment in the customer proposition and operating cost inflation, partially offset by operating cost savings and lower finance charges
• Statutory profit before tax of £327 million versus £854 million last year. Impacted by non-cash asset impairments, driven by a higher discount rate, and one-off income from legal settlements in the prior year
• Retail free cash flow £645 million
• Year end net funds, excluding leases, of £144 million, a £285 million improvement. Net debt including leases improved by £415 million to £6,344 million
• Underlying earnings per share 23.0 pence, down 9%. Basic earnings per share 9.0 pence, down 70%
• Proposed final dividend of 9.2 pence, full-year dividend of 13.1 pence, in line with last year
• Outlook: At this early stage of the year, we expect UPBT between £640 million and £700 million in FY2023/24 and we continue to expect to generate at least £500 million of Retail free cash flow