J Sainsbury has issued a pointed rejection of Tesco’s claim that it has overtaken its main rivals in sales growth.

Yesterday Sainsbury’s announced like-for-like growth of 5.4 per cent during the 16 weeks to October 3, outstripping the 3.1 per cent reported by Tesco for the three months to the end of August. Justin King, the chief executive of Sainsbury’s, derided Tesco’s claim that it was now growing faster than its big four foes as an unsubstantiated “throwaway remark”.

He said: “We have just reported a 16-week quarterly sales growth of 5.4 per cent, against 3.1 per cent on the same basis for the most recent quarter, so, no, it is not a statement we recognise.

“We never comment on individual weeks and months. Our figures are bang up to date — you’ve seen what they are. They are obviously significantly better than Tesco reported for a period that largely overlapped with that.

“Of course, no figures were quoted [by Tesco] yesterday — it was just a throwaway remark about figures that are industry-confidential, so I don’t think they are backed up.”

Mr King was referring to comments by Sir Terry Leahy, the chief executive of Tesco, who said on Tuesday that Tesco had closed the sales growth gap with its rivals and, in recent weeks, had overtaken them.

Sainsbury’s acknowledged that headline growth, already down from 7.8 per cent in the previous quarter, would fall farther because food inflation had nearly reached zero, reducing the value of takings in supermarket tills. Mr King did, however, agree with Sir Terry that consumers were feeling more confident and had regained their appetite for premium purchases. “Part of the reason that customers will be feeling a little bit bouncier is they aren’t seeing the food inflation as commodity price rises of a year ago,” Mr King said. “Food inflation arrived with quite a bang a year ago.”

Sainsbury’s, unlike Tesco, supports the proposed introduction of a competition test by the Competition Commission, saying that it was “in the interests of consumers and the pursuit of competition”.

Sir Terry has criticised the proposals and expressed doubt this week that they would come to fruition in a political environment in which no government could afford to be seen to thwart investment and job creation.

Analysis by CACI, the location specialist, suggested yesterday that Tesco’s dominance of local markets was beginning to recede. CACI said that Tesco was the dominant supermarket in 84 of Britain’s 121 postcodes, down from 87 last year.

Sainsbury’s emerged as the big winner as it gained the No 1 position in eight postcode areas, losing the top position in only three.

Under the competition test, retailers that hold more than half of a local market will be barred from opening new space, with some exceptions for store extensions.

Sainsbury’s recently raised £430 million to accelerate its store expansion programme. Mr King believes that Sainsbury’s underperformance during the 1990s leaves it more room for expansion than any of its main rivals.

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