J SAINSBURY PLC LONDON (Reuters) - British grocer J Sainsbury (>> J Sainsbury plc) said on Wednesday it was "100 percent confident" it accounts for commercial income from suppliers in the right way, following an accounting debacle at rival Tesco (>> Tesco PLC).
Shares in Britain's supermarket sector have fallen sharply since Tesco announced on Sept. 22 that it had overstated first-half profit by 250 million pounds. The mis-statement related to income the grocer receives from food suppliers for selling more of their goods.
"As the former commercial director I am 100 percent confident we have a culture of doing the right thing and that includes making sure that we account for all things in our business correctly," Chief Executive Mike Coupe told reporters after Sainsbury's published a second quarter trading update which cut its full-year sales forecast.
Sainsbury's plans to provide a detailed strategic update at its interim results on Nov. 12.
Chief Financial Officer John Rogers told reporters the strategic review would include future dividend policy.
"If we are doing a full scale strategic review and ... no stone is going to remain unturned, you'd expect the dividend to be part of that full scale review," he said.
"We will update the market in November on our overall strategy, including of course what our dividend policy is and will be."
(Reporting by James Davey; editing by Kate Holton)
