Sainsbury's, the UK's third-largest retailer, has announced a strong set of results for the third quarter (Q3) of 2009/10, with comparative sales up and customer numbers swelling.
The group announced that overall group sales increased by 6.2 per cent year-on-year through the 13-week period, with like-for-like sales excluding fuel and VAT up by 4.2 per cent.
Additionally, Sainsbury's served an extra 1m customers each week over the quarter (ended 2 January 2010), hitting an all-time high of 24m in the seven days up to and including Christmas Eve.
'Sainsbury's has delivered a strong trading performance over the past 13 weeks resulting in like-for-like sales growth, excluding fuel, of 3.7 per cent, or 4.2 per cent VAT adjusted,' said group CEO Justin King. 'Our strategy of delivering great food at fair prices has resulted in a record Christmas performance, completing a strong third quarter on top of good growth last year.
'While food price inflation eased in the quarter as expected, a winning combination of more customers, enjoying even better products and prices through more stores, delivered total sales growth of 6.2 per cent,' he added.
Mr King said that the business continued to perform well in what remained a challenging consumer environment, and that the company's universal customer appeal, together with accelerated growth plans, meant that Sainsbury's remained well-placed to make 'continued good progress' in 2010.
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