Tesco and Sainsbury are both listed on the London Stock Exchange. The UK grocery sector has been under pressure of late, originally down to depressed consumer spending brought on by the UK’s financial crisis, but then more recently by a surge in competition. The UK market has come under pressure from the expansion of discount retailers, which has impacted on sales at all the Big UK grocers.
In terms of profitability, figures from the income statement are used, showing that profit margins at Tesco have been falling. Tesco has seen margins decline largely down to more intense price competition within the supermarket sector. These apparent ‘price wars’ have been showing that supermarkets are trying harder to retain customers.
In terms of efficiency, falling store sales have an impact on the return on assets given that the same assets and so Tesco’s stores are generating fewer sales. This may be noted as a reason to the cut in capital expenditure, with Tesco looking to improve the efficiency of current assets before it spends adding more stores to its portfolio. with the retailer, along with Sainsbury’s both announcing job cuts and store closures.
In terms of liquidity. In terms of Tesco, it can be seen that the retailer has looked to improve their financial position as slower growth from 2011. Tesco did see a marked increase in debt in the earlier years due to expansion and higher expectations of higher growth. While there has been some improvement, the Current Ratio could still be viewed by some as too low; however the desired ratio may be different depending on the industry . The ratio showcases the company’s ability to pay short-term obligations with current assets, and so a value above one would beneficial. A value under one suggests that the company would be unable to meet all short-term obligations with current . The quick ratio measures the amount of liquid assets that are available for each £GBP of current liabilities, and so again a value over one would be beneficial to the company.
It can be noted from the financials above that Sainsbury’s has gone through the same issues of Tesco, mainly down to competition within the overall grocery sector. However, Sainsbury’s has performed better at maintaining profit margins in the latter years given its targeting strategy to more affluent customers, although this may change as the retailer enters into more price competition and comparisons.
This has impacted on the financial performance of both Tesco and Sainsbury’s as price competition has become the main avenue for growth, however it appears that Sainsbury’s may be less affected that Tesco given its positioning in the higher end of the marketplace which has benefited from a resurgence in UK growth.