Sainsbury’s will this week become the latest supermarket chain to reveal falling sales as the sector grapples with the slowest growth for 11 years.

Justin King’s last set of trading figures as Sainsbury’s chief executive will produce more downbeat news on Wednesday, with sales expected to show a fall for the second quarter in a row.

Brokers at Barclays and Citigroup both estimate the supermarket will post a 1.1% fall in like-for-like sales figures for the 12 weeks to June 7.

In the previous quarter Sainsbury’s saw its like-for-like sales fall 3.1%, but Barclays warns against reading too much into the recovery because of the impact of Easter and other one-off comparables.

Sainsbury’s fourth quarter fall was the first in many years. However, the legacy that Mr King hands to commercial director Mike Coupe when he steps down next month following 10 years in charge is nine years of rising annual profits.

Analysts believe next week’s figures will represent a good result for the business considering the price pressure on the big four supermarket retailers from German discounters such as Aldi and Lidl.

Citigroup said comparisons between the big four is becoming “a two-speed story” as the performance at both Asda and Sainsbury seems to have stabilised over the last two months. Asda saw its most recent like-for-likes edge up 0.1% in the 15 weeks to April 20.

This is in contrast to Tesco and Morrisons which continued to lose market share over this period. Morrisons saw its first quarter like-for-likes fall 7.1% in the 13 weeks to May 4, while last week Tesco posted a 3.7% drop in underlying sales for the first quarter to May 24.

Sainsbury’s has already warned that the current year’s sales performance will be flat, while analysts expect Mr Coupe’s first set of annual results as boss in 2015 to show a fall in profits to £762million, from £798m this year.

Investors expect the digital makeover of Argos to show more progress when parent company Home Retail Group reports its first quarter trading on Thursday.

In recent years Argos has refreshed its store formats and beefed up its multi-channel offer. Analysts at Barclays said the chain’s “best in class” click and collect capability has transformed the large store portfolio into a competitive advantage.

Home Retail, led by chief executive John Walden, made the improvements because it said customers increasingly wanted local product collection and appreciate face-to-face customer service.

Apart from Argos, which has 734 stores, Home Retail also owns DIY chain Homebase, which operates 323 shops, and Barclays believes the pick up in the housing market will continue to support both businesses.

The bank said: “We believe that electricals will have another robust year while the housing market should continue to support sales of homewares and large ticket items at both Argos and Homebase.”

The market consensus is that Argos will announce a first-quarter rise in like-for-like sales of 3.7%, while Homebase is expected to boost like-for-like sales by 7.5% over the same period.

The group reported its first improvement in annual profits in six years in April, posting a 27% rise in profits to £115.4 million in the year to March 1.

The City expects the group to make profits of £129m in this financial year, based on its digital strategy and the improving housing market.

There are hopes that Flybe will show it has turned the corner after two years of losses when it posts its annual results on Wednesday.

The market expects the regional airline to report a full-year pre-tax profit of £6.7m on sales of £621m. This compares with the previous year’s £23.2m loss amid higher fuel costs and a declining domestic market.

Since then Flybe has axed around 450 jobs, closed regional bases and cut routes under a major cost-cutting programme. The firm raised £150m in February to boost its balance sheet and launch new services.

Flybe has refocused on larger sites in its network, expanding its service from Birmingham, but closing bases in Inverness, Aberdeen, Isle of Man, Newcastle, Jersey and Guernsey, although it will continue to fly to those airports.

Analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald said the group has completed most of its major restructuring and been able “to fix its balance sheet and provide funds for growth.”

The airline announced a five-year deal to fly from London City Airport in April.

Brokers at HSBC lauded this as a good move but will watch how the airline fares on competitive routes such as London to Edinburgh. They will also keep an eye on how Flybe markets off peak flights out of the airport.

However, HSBC is more sceptical about its January expansion in Birmingham, pointing out that rivals Monarch and Ryanair already have significant bases there with larger airplanes which run on lower unit costs.

Pets at Home, which has struggled to keep above its flotation price earlier this year, will report its maiden set of full-year results on Thursday.

The pet care retailer floated in March with a share price of 245p and a valuation of £1.2billion. The business, in line with a number of newcomers, currently trades below this at around 216p with a valuation of £1.1bn.

The company said it will post underlying annual earnings of not less than £110.2m, compared with last year when the figure was £99m.

When the firm announced its intention to float in February it said its underlying earnings had risen 11.1% to £87m in the 40 weeks to January 2 of this year. It added the business had achieved like-for-like growth of 2.4%, while revenues lifted by 11.7%.

Pets at Home claims to have a 12% share of the market, and has more stores than its five biggest rivals combined in what is a fragmented market. But the business is keen to expand further and wants to boost its number of stores from 369 to more than 500, while it plans to almost treble the small animal veterinary surgeries it operates to over 700.

The retailer’s listing came 23 years after founder Anthony Preston opened the first Pets at Home store in Chester. Mr Preston retains a small stake in the group.