Supermarket giant Sainsbury reports increase in festive sales

Sainsbury’s like-for-like sales increased by 0.9per cent in the 14 weeks to January

11:34 10 January 2013

Sainsbury, one of Britain’s giant supermarkets, reported a 0.9per cent increase in sales over the Christmas and New Year period. The news came two days after rival Morrisonsrevealed a drop in sales over the same period.

However, Sainsbury like-for-like sales growth of 0.9per cent is significantly lower compared to the 2.1per cent sales increase the company enjoyed the same period last year.

It’s also significantly lower compared to the 1.7per cent increase in the first half of its fiscal year.

Justin King, Sainsbury’s Chief Executive, revealed that the company had a very strong last quarter for 2012 especially for their own-brand clothing and food products.

The company saw a 10per cent increase in sales in their clothing, and 15per cent sales increase for its champagne and prosecco.

 

Mr King said: “Our colleagues did an outstanding job this Christmas, serving a record number of customers and maintaining excellent levels of customer service and availability.

 

“The week before Christmas was our strongest trading week ever, with customer transactions exceeding 27m.

 

“We saw a record breaking £16m of sales in one hour between 12pm and 1pm on Sunday December 23 and experienced our best ever Christmas Eve, at both our supermarket and convenience stores, with over £100m of sales.”