Sainsbury's chief unhappy with sales

Same-store sales grew by just 0.3%, against analysts' expectations of 0.5-1.5% growth.

Total UK sales, which include sales from newly opened stores, rose by 2%.

"I am not satisfied by our sales performance during the last two quarters," said Sir Peter.

"There is no doubt changes in-store and within the supply chain have disrupted the execution of our customer offer."

Recovery 'not working'

Sainsbury has been under pressure from critics in the City who have said that its recovery plan, which has one year to run, is not working.

Profits are rising primarily on the back of cost cuts as sales growth remains elusive despite billions of pounds of investment in store improvements over the last three years.

Sir Peter said the next 12 months were "most important in the delivery of our change programme, when the first two years of groundwork and capital investment really take hold".

The group's top priority was to ensure that the programme was fully completed.

He added that Sainsbury's was committed to delivering its cost savings target of �250m this year and said he remained confident that "real progress" was being made across the group.

Profits for the first quarter were ahead of the same period last year and its US business, Shaw's, saw like-for-like sales growth of 0.8% and total sales growth of 1.1%.