A war of words erupted today between two of Britain’s biggest supermarket chains over Christmas trading claims.
Tesco accused its fierce rival Sainsbury’s of a “smear” in suggesting the firm — known for its “Every Little Helps” slogan — had misrepresented its festive figures to impress the City. The row came after Tesco told the Stock Market that its sales had risen 1.8 per cent over Christmas.
This was double the 0.9 per cent that Sainsbury’s reported yesterday. In a provocative email to City analysts, a senior Sainsbury’s executive called the Tesco headline figure “disingenuous” and said it did not comply with accounting rules.
The email from head of investor relations Adam Wilson Katsibas, leaked to Sky News, referred to the fact that Tesco’s 1.8 per cent figure included sales where customers used Clubcard vouchers.
He said this was in breach of guidance from the International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee, which gives rulings on accounting standards that are open to ambiguity.
Mr Wilson Katsibas said “I thought it worth pointing out that the UK like-for-like sales number of 1.8 per cent that Tesco are reporting this morning is non-IFRIC compliant.
“This is a bit disingenuous. They should use the 1.4 per cent number in their headline. All of our reported numbers are IFRIC compliant, as they have to be.”
Insiders at Sainsbury’s, led by chief executive Justin King, suggested that if it had used the same measure of sales its performance would have been boosted to 1.4 per cent.
But furious Tesco insiders said Sainsbury’s was trying to “smear” its Christmas trading performance.
Chief executive Philip Clarke today declined to comment on the performance of competitors, saying he was focused only on “building a better Tesco”.
The row is the latest episode in a rivalry dating back many decades. Until the mid-Nineties, family-owned Sainsbury’s was seen as the lord of Britain’s supermarket sector and looked down on its “pile ’em high and sell ’em cheap” competitor.
However, Tesco took the No 1 spot in 1995 and is now twice the size of Sainsbury’s in market share terms.
But in recent years Sainsbury’s has started to close the gap again after Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy left.
