Sainsbury’s has seen its full year profits fall by 8.2% to £503m, according to its preliminary results announcement for the 52 weeks to 11 March 2017.
Sainsbury’s has seen its full year profits fall by 8.2% to £503m, according to its preliminary results announcement 
for the 52 weeks to 11 March 2017.
Like-for-like sales were down by 0.6%. However, group sales increased by 12.7% to £29,112m, mainly as a result of the Argos contribution, the retailer said.
Chief executive Mike Coupe said: “This has been a pivotal year and we have made significant progress delivering and accelerating our strategy.
“We are pleased with the progress made since we acquired Argos. We have opened 59 Argos Digital stores in Sainsbury’s supermarkets and they are performing well.”
He added: “We continue to find ways to simplify our business and reduce costs. We are on track to deliver our three-year £500 million cost saving programme by the end of 2017/18 and we will deliver a further £500 million of cost savings over three years from 2018/19. We benefit from a strong balance sheet and have reduced our net debt by £349 million to £1,477 million.