* 2020-21 underlying pretax profit falls to 356 mln pounds
* Grocery sales up 7.8%, online sales double
* Says starts new financial year strongly
* Comfortable with profit forecasts of 620 mln pounds
(Adds detail, CEO comment, shares)
By James Davey
LONDON, April 28 (Reuters) - British supermarket chain
Sainsbury's forecast a big rebound in underlying profit
this year after a 39% fall in 2020-21 as strong food sales
during the pandemic were outweighed by extra costs and a
decision to forgo business rates relief.
CEO Simon Roberts said that while customers shopping more
normally as restrictions ease and restaurants and bars fully
open would impact sales growth in the 2021-22 year, the costs of
the crisis would fall.
"Like our customers, we are all looking forward to things
feeling more normal over the coming months and getting excited
about a summer of celebration, but we are also cautious about
the economic outlook," he said.
The UK's second largest grocer after Tesco, made an
underlying pretax profit of 356 million pounds ($494 million) in
the year to March 6, in line with guidance but down from the 586
million a year earlier.
Grocery sales rose 7.8%, general merchandise sales were up
8.3% and online sales doubled, but the company said it incurred
an extra 485 million pounds in costs.
It also returned business rates relief offered by the
government worth about 410 million pounds.
Sainsbury's reported a statutory pretax loss of 261 million
pounds, after booking 617 million pounds of exceptional charges
related to a restructuring programme which Roberts detailed last
November.
Sainsbury's shares were down 2.9% at 1032 GMT, paring
year-on-year gains to 21.4% - gains partly buoyed by bid
speculation after Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky increased
his holding to 10%.
Sainsbury's three major domestic rivals - Tesco, Asda and
Morrisons - all enjoyed strong sales over the last year
as lockdowns closed the hospitality sector for long periods and
forced many people to work from home.
However, they have also had to endure the costs of
additional workers, staff sick pay and in-store measures to deal
with the pandemic.
This month, Tesco reported a 20% drop in annual profit,
while last month Morrisons reported a halving of
profit.
Sainsbury's said like-for-like sales, excluding fuel, rose
11.3% in its fiscal fourth quarter, having increased 8.6% in the
third.
It said it had started the new financial year strongly and
was comfortable with analysts' consensus forecasts for 2021-22
underlying pretax profit of about 620 million pounds.
($1 = 0.7204 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey; editing by David Clarke and Jason
Neely)
