Any hapless City worker visiting one of the J Sainsbury plc (LON:SBRY) stores around Aldgate recently may have noticed the chain appears to have cut back its range of ‘meal deal’ sandwiches.
The more luxurious concoctions on offer are full-price now, leaving those of us on a tighter budget to choose from wholesome but plainer choices – tuna & cucumber, cheese & tomato, ham, you know the like.
And analysts at Morgan Stanley appear to have picked up on such issues ahead of Sainsbury’s trading update on Wednesday.
They noted that Sainsbury’s has indeed been moving away from multi-buys and other such special offers to a more everyday low-price model.
Analysts are likely to be interested in whether the change of strategy is beefing up sales and what impact higher import costs as a result of the weak pound will have had.
Morgan Stanley reckons it will have continued to hit sales, as the chain finished phasing out multi-buys in June.
They added: “The number of national brand products on promotion at Sainsbury declined from about 19% in the second quarter of 2015/16 to about 7% in the second quarter of 2016/2017.”
Analysts are also likely to be interested in progress with the integration of Home Retail and Argos, a deal which Sainsbury’s completed on September 2.
Morgan Stanley said: “For the second quarter ending August 27 (13 weeks), we expect Argos like-for-like sales to have been down -0.2% year-on-year.”
Meanwhile, another retailer, Moss Bros Group plc (LON:MOSB), is set to report a 22% rise in first-half pre-tax profits to £3.4mln, according to Peel Hunt.
The broker noted that the retailer and outfit hire chain reported a 5% like-for-like sales increase in the first 15 weeks of the period.
“Moss is showing clear signs of generating operating leverage as group sales build and second-half forecasts look conservative in light of the strong start to the year, suggesting upgrade potential if trading momentum continues,” the broker said.
Elsewhere, soap maker PZ Cussons plc (LON:PZC) is unlikely to report any surprises in a trading statement which Numis Securities expects to be in line with hopes.
Numis analysts expect the company to update on currency-related matters in its Nigerian business. They added: "Comments regarding non-African operations ought to be solid."
Other companies expected to report include:
Finals: Clinigen, Smiths Group;
Interims: AA, Ebiquity, Petropavlovsk.