UK grocery retailer Sainsbury’s has recorded what it described as its “best ever Christmas performance” with like-for-like sales over the past 13 weeks up by 4.5 per cent, excluding fuel.
In a statement, Sainsbury’s chief executive Justin King said the results for the third quarter 2008/09 had been achieved through the continued development of the retailer’s offer and its ability to respond to rapidly to changing customer needs.
Mr King said customer transactions continued to grow over the quarter and now exceeded 18m a week with 22.6m transactions in the seven days before Christmas.
He said: “Product availability was strong and we had a great range of quality products and market-leading promotional offers. This resulted in our best ever Christmas performance including the company’s busiest trading day on 23 December.
“We also delivered the highest ever trading performances for both Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.”
During the quarter, the retailer opened six new stores, including a replacement store at Milton Keynes – its largest new store in eight years – and extended six stores. It also continued its planned programme of disposing of fully developed trading stores by selling the freehold on two stores for £86m.
Despite the encouraging results, Mr King said the economic environment was “particularly challenging” and he expects this to continue in 2009.
However, he said that Sainsbury’s continued investment in price and promotions along with “universal appeal and a wide customer base” meant it was “well positioned” to continue its good progress.
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