THE recovery of supermarket group Sainsbury's looks on track after it reported a third consecutive quarter of like-for-like sales growth.

The UK's third-biggest supermarket chain said it would achieve a 2.8 per cent rise in petrol-excluded sales for the 16 weeks to October 8.

The company said customers were benefiting from an improvement in product availability and price.

Chief executive Justin King welcomed the continued recovery of the chain after it suffered the first loss in its 135-year history.

He said: "Trading during the second quarter has continued the good progress made in the first 12 weeks of the year."

Like-for-like sales for the second quarter this year were up 4.1 per cent including petrol. Total sales were up 6.6 per cent including petrol.