Chief executive Simon Roberts reported that three years after setting out his strategy to become more competitive, the supermarket giant has narrowed its price gap with all its rivals.

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 Crucially it has started to win market share from Aldi and Lidl.

Mr Roberts claimed Sainsbury’s was now “the most competitive we have ever been on price”.

He said: “Customers are voting with their feet, coming to Sainsbury’s more often and buying bigger baskets.”

The retailer’s food sales have risen by ten per cent in six months.

Mr Roberts said: “I’m pleased to say inflation is coming down and we are passing savings on to customers.”

In the past year, Sainsbury’s has launched a personalised version of its Nectar loyalty card scheme and expanded its Stamford Street range of cheap own-brand groceries to stop losing customers to budget rivals.

Mr Roberts claimed that an average Nectar member now saves around £10 on an £80 weekly shop.

But he admitted that this investment in lower prices was to blame for flat underlying profits of £340million.

Statutory pre-tax profits dropped 27 per cent last year — from £376- million to £275million — largely because the retailer had a one-off gain in 2022 from a legal settlement.

The company said that sales of non-food items, including its Tu clothing range and Argos business, fell by 2.6 per cent over the summer because of poor weather.

Mr Roberts said: “We had a washout summer compared to last year’s blistering temperatures.”

Sainsbury’s now expects to make profits of between £670million and £700million this year.

Mr Roberts said he expected shoppers to stick to careful budgets this Christmas. But he added they are likely to swap eating out or getting a takeaway for an upmarket ready-meal.

Jingle Bell Rick

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EIGHTIES pop legend Rick Astley makes a cheesy cameo appearance in Sainsbury’s Christmas advert.

The Never Gonna Give You Up singer, 57, pops up in the clip — which sees a little girl ask over the supermarket tannoy what Santa has for his Christmas dinner — with Rick suggesting “cheese”.

Sainsbury’s is not the only brand with a musical star in its advert this year — Asda’s features Michael Buble.

300 jobs to go at Thames

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THAMES WATER is cutting 300 jobs just months after a financial bailout.

It currently employs 8,200 staff and says about half of the roles it is cutting are vacant. Most of them are in its retail and digital divisions.

A spokesman said: “The last year has been challenging and we continue to take a rigorous approach to financial discipline to operate within budget.

“We need to make more difficult but necessary decisions.”

In July, the utility firm raised £750million of emergency cash from shareholders amid speculation the government could have to nationalise the financially stretched firm.

Thames had a £14billion debt pile and needs to overhaul its pipes and sewage network after more than a decade of underinvestement.

Its recovery has been further hampered after it was issued with a £100million fine by water regulator OFWAT for sewage spills and water leaks last year.

BT boost for boss

BT’s outgoing boss Philip Jansen has bowed out with better than expected results.

The telecom firm said that underlying earnings had risen 3 per cent to £2.06billion for the three months to the end of September, above predictions.

Although shares rose 5 per cent they are still 55 per cent lower than where they were when Mr Jansen started due to the high cost of building its fibre broadband network.

 Allison Kirkby takes over as CEO early in the new year.

Market’s relief

LONDON’S financial markets showed their relief yesterday that the Bank of England kept interest rates unchanged.

The FTSE 250 jumped 581.41 points to 17,767.30. The FTSE 100 also had gains.

Yields on UK government bonds, known as gilts, fell as traders hoped the era of endless rate hikes might be over.

 The yield on a ten-year gilt fell to 4.38 per cent, compared to 4.6 per cent earlier this month, while the 30-year gilt is down below 5 per cent again. The pound has also stabilised against the dollar.

Shelling it out

SHELL has handed back another £2.8billion to shareholders as its oil, gas and trading arm booms.

It posted £5.08billion profits for the last three months, up from £4.2billion in the second quarter. But it’s down on the £7.7billion last year when energy prices were higher due to the war in Ukraine.

Shell has now handed back a total of £18billion to investors this year.

Shell is valued much less than US rivals Chevron and Exxon, a long source of frustration for the City.