Sainsbury‘s chief executive Mike Coupe has made a statement urging suppliers to “mitigate their own cost pressures” before raising costs.

Stating that many suppliers “profits are far higher than ours”, Coupe reassured consumers he was doing everything in his power to hold off inflationary costs being passed onto consumers amid widespread inflation anxiety.

The demand was made as Sainsbury‘s showed signs of strain in its half year results. 

The retailer posted a dive of 10.1 per cent in underlying profits to £277 million this week, and the full report on Sainsbury‘s half year results can be seen here.


READ MORE: Brace yourselves, inflation is coming


With margins already sqeezed to extremes from the ongoing price war, market share being chipped away by discount retailers and a hefty £1.4 billion acquisition bill, the weak pound has put Sainsbury‘s into a difficult corner.

Its shares tumbled by 6.6 per cent yesterday as it became the top faller in the FTSE 100. 

Despite this Coupe was adamant its full year profits would be in line with the market consensus of £572 million.

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