London - British supermarket Sainsbury's posted a fifth straight quarter of declining underlying sales and said it did not expect the trading environment to improve any time soon.
The group, which trails market leader Tesco and Walmart's Asda by annual sales, said on Tuesday sales at stores open over a year fell 1.9%, excluding fuel, in the 10 weeks to March 14, its fiscal fourth quarter.
That compares with company guidance of down about 2% and a third quarter fall of 1.7%.