Sainsbury's

Reuters

Despite the increased demand for non-alcoholic drinks and the growing popularity of Veganuary, Britain's supermarkets struggled to increase sales last month, according to the latest data from Kantar Worldpanel.

The retail analysts reported muted sales growth of 0.3% across the sector in the 12 weeks to 12 January, with the Big Four all suffering declines.

Tesco's market share dropped to 27.3% from 27.7% a year earlier, Sainsbury's to 15.8% from 15.9%, Asda to 14.9% from 15.3%, and Morrisons fell to 10.3% from 10.6%.

Sales of non-alcoholic beer rocketed 37% in the past three months, but more than 15 million households still bought alcohol during the past four weeks of dry January.

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Sainsbury's has promised to reduce its net carbon emissions to zero over the next 20 years.

Outgoing chief executive Mike Coupe tells the Today programme that the supermarket would be writing to its suppliers to ensure "they are playing their part in reducing our carbon emissions".

He adds: "We need to understand further up our supply chains how we impact the environment and make sure our suppliers are working towards eliminating their carbon emissions as well."

Asked whether it would help carbon emissions to sell more UK produce instead of food from overseas, he said: "We have to find a balance regarding 'food miles'.

"We have to bring our customers on the journey with us. It is more environmentally-friendly to grow products in environments that are suitable for those products. But equally there is a trade-off between doing that, our customers having availability of those products and the way that we bring them to the market."

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Sainsbury's chief executive Mike Coupe, who announced last week that he is stepping down from the role in May, denies he is leaving because of the supermarket's failed merger with Asda.

"I am approaching my 60th birthday and I always promised myself I wouldn't work beyond that," he tells the Today programme.

"I'm going to take some time off, spend some time with my family and see where it goes from there. I’ve done this role for six years, I’ve worked for Sainsbury’s for 15 years and I’ve worked in this industry for 35 years," he says.

"If you look at our AGM (annual general meeting) last year, 99.5% of our shareholders voted for me to carry on doing what I’m doing.

"This is absolutely my choice, and something I promised myself throughout my career that at the age of 60 I will stop and do something different with my life."

Maureen Hinton, retail research director at Global Data, didn't consider Mike Coupe's decision to stand down as Sainsbury's boss a shock.

After the Asda deal didn’t go through it needed a period of stability to get the company back on track.

So it probably needs someone else to take over. You need a fresh eye. It’s very tough in retail generally, but there’s a big argument for saturation in the grocery sector. There’s only so much we can eat."