Sainsbury’s has reported a 0.4% fall in total retail sales for the second quarter of the year.

During the 16 weeks to 24 September, like-for-like sales were down by 1.1% - the second consecutive quarter decline.

Group chief executive Mike Coupe said: “We continue to make progress against our strategy and, while like-for-like sales were down 1.1 per cent (excl. fuel), driven by food price deflation, we delivered like-for-like transaction growth across all channels and total volume growth.”

He added: “Our ambition is to help customers live well for less. We have made further investment in everyday low prices and continue to improve the quality of our products. Our general merchandise and clothing offer is popular with customers and the acquisition of Home Retail Group will accelerate our multi-product, multi-channel strategy. We will open 200 new digital collection points by the end of the year and already have 15 Argos Digital stores open in Sainsbury's stores so customers can shop 90,000 products whenever and wherever they want.

“We expect the market to remain competitive and the effect of the devaluation of sterling remains unclear. However, Sainsbury’s is well positioned to navigate the changing marketplace and we are confident that our strategy will enable us to continue to outperform our major peers,” Mr Coupe said.