Sainsbury's reports best ever Christmas

The Retail Bulletin           Wednesday January 11th 2012

Sainsbury's has reported a record breaking Christmas as like-for-like sales rose 2.1% in the 14 weeks to 7 January.

The supermarket said it enjoyed its “best Christmas ever” with 26 million customer transactions in the Christmas week, up 1.5 million on  last year.

Justin King, Sainsbury's chief executive, said in a trading update today: "This was a strong quarter, rounded off by our best Christmas ever, despite the economic backdrop."

Sainsbury said sales of its premium Taste the Difference range rose 10% in the quarter, as customers bought more than £2 million worth of TtD Norfolk Black Free Range turkeys and almost 50,000 TtD Kirsch Cherry Filled Christmas Puddings.

General merchandise and clothing continued to grow faster than food with the Christmas gifts range selling nearly one million units, up over 10%. A half-price toy promotion also helped sales.

Sales of groceries online increased by almost 20% in Christmas week and Sainsbury’s delivered a record 160,000 orders per week over the Christmas period. Christmas week was also strongest for 'Click and Collect', with almost 75% of customers ordering online general merchandise using the service.

During the quarter Sainsbury’s added over 600,000 sq ft of new space, including its 1,000th store, and 21 new convenience stores. Convenience grew at almost 25%, driven by new space and strong like-for-like sales growth.