Sales growth slows at Sainsbury's

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Supermarket group Sainsbury's has reported a slowdown in sales growth after poor summer weather hit trade.

Sainsbury's said like-for-like sales excluding petrol were up 3.1% in the 16 weeks to 6 October, slower growth than the 5.1% seen in the previous quarter.

The slowdown was in line with recent results posted by supermarket rivals Tesco and Morrisons.

Sainsbury's made no comments about Qatari investment fund Delta Two's attempts to take it over.

The supermarket group has opened its books to Delta Two, which is planning a 600p-a-share bid valuing Sainsbury's at £10.6bn.

However, recent reports have said that the Sainsbury family - which owns 18% of the business - would seek to block a bid from Delta Two if it fails to strike a deal with pension trustees.

Fairtrade move

"We have delivered a good first half sales performance in line with our expectations for the current year despite the poor summer weather," said chief executive Justin King.

Sales growth in the quarter was "strong", Sainsbury's said, given that sales in the same period a year ago had benefited from "exceptionally" warm weather.

The supermarket added that it had maintained its "competitive position" in the grocery market during the quarter by cutting prices on 7,000 products.

It also announced that it would make its entire range of own-brand tea Fairtrade over the next three years.

Sainsbury's said that this would make it the UK's biggest Fairtrade tea retailer and would triple Fairtrade tea sales in the UK.