Interim Management Statement

Sainsbury(J) PLC
10 January 2008


10 January 2008

Third Quarter Trading Statement for 12 weeks to 29 December 2007

Good Christmas quarter keeps recovery ahead of plan

Highlights

•  Total sales for third quarter up 5.9 per cent (4.7 per cent excluding fuel)
•  Like-for-like sales for third quarter up 5.1 per cent (3.7 per cent
   excluding fuel)
•  Twelve consecutive quarters of like-for-like sales growth
•  £2.5 billion additional sales target achieved three months ahead of plan

Justin King, chief executive, said:  'We are pleased to report like-for-like
sales growth of 3.7 per cent, excluding fuel, for the third quarter.  This is a
good result for the Christmas quarter, and is particularly pleasing given the
level of competition during this period.  We have now completed 12 consecutive
quarters of like-for-like sales growth delivering strong three-year growth ahead
of our expectations.

'As a result of this continued strong sales momentum, we are also delighted to
report that we have now successfully achieved our goal of £2.5 billion of
additional sales since March 2005.  This significant milestone in our recovery
was surpassed early in quarter four, three months ahead of plan.

'We made good year-on-year improvements across a number of seasonal events, such
as Halloween and Bonfire Night and this enabled us to continue to grow sales
from an already strong base.  Over 21.5 million customers shopped at Sainsbury's
in the seven days before Christmas supported by our highest level of product
availability this year.  We served more than 300,000 customers per hour on 23
December, the busiest trading day of the week.

'Over the quarter we continued our investment in the customer offer to ensure
our price position remains competitive for customers whilst continuing to
provide the additional quality Sainsbury's products have to offer.  We also
delivered a number of market-leading promotions in the weeks leading up to
Christmas.  We experienced good growth across our product range with our basics
value entry range and our Taste the difference premium range recording the
strongest growth of all our sub brands.

'Sainsbury's Online continued to deliver exceptional sales growth of over 40 per
cent throughout the quarter.  In the week before Christmas we delivered 90,000
orders, our best ever performance and up over 50 per cent on the previous year.
We now operate the service from an additional nine stores.

'The performance of our non-food offer is now accelerating in line with our
ongoing plans.  Growth is being driven by the continued development of product
ranges and their introduction into new stores and store extensions.  We had a
strong Christmas gift offer, our first to be sourced direct by our in-house
team.  We had significant sales growth in homeware, toys, electrical,
entertainment and clothing.

'We are continuing to develop our store estate and are on track to deliver our
2007/08 opening programme.  During the quarter we opened 12 new supermarkets,
extended five existing stores and refurbished 17 stores including our original '
green' store at Greenwich which reopened in November with significantly enhanced
energy efficiency credentials.  We also opened eight new convenience stores.

'We are pleased with our third quarter sales performance, the good growth we
achieved during the Christmas period and the fact that we have achieved our £2.5
billion additional sales target three months early.  Consumer budgets are
clearly under pressure and we expect the market to continue to be very
competitive.  The improvements we have made to our business during our recovery
means we are well equipped to perform in this challenging environment and we
remain confident in our ability to deliver our growth plans.'

Enquiries:

Investor Relations                        Media
Elliot Jordan                             Pip Wood
[phone]                      [phone]


Notes

(1)      Certain statements made in this announcement are forward looking
statements.  Such statements are based on current expectations and are subject
to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ
materially from any expected future events or results referred to in these
forward looking statements.  Unless otherwise required by applicable law,
regulation or accounting standard, we do not undertake any obligation to update
or revise any forward looking statements, whether as a result of new
information, future developments or otherwise.

(2)     A conference call will take place at 8:45am GMT.  To listen to the audio
webcast we recommend that you register in advance.  To do so please visit
www.j-sainsbury.co.uk prior to the event and follow the on-screen instructions.
To view the transcript of the conference call, go to www.j-sainsbury.co.uk on 11
January 2008.

(3)     Sainsbury's will announce its fourth quarter trading statement on 26
March 2008.

(4)    Sales results for the year to date:
2007/08                                             Q1          Q2          H1          Q3

Sales growth including petrol (%)
Total                                              5.7         3.8         4.7         5.9
Lfl                                                4.4         2.6         3.3         5.1

Sales growth excluding petrol (%)
Total                                              6.7         4.7         5.7         4.7
Lfl                                                5.1         3.1         4.0         3.7












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