Following a strong first quarter performance, upmarket retailer Waitrose has revealed that recent warm weather and a 27 per cent increase in sales of salad products helped it to achieve 8.4 per cent growth for the week ending 27 April.
Waitrose achieved an 11.1 per cent rise in sales for the first three months of 2013, with the retailer insisting that growth was the result of existing stores (Waitrose has 291 shops in the UK and Channel Islands), with only one new store opening in the first quarter. The retailer also saw a first quarter surge in online grocery transactions with internet sales up a staggering 50.1 per cent.
Financial director Tom Athron said the chain attracted more than five million weekly customers into its branches for the first quarter, a new record, and that customer transactions were up 8.4 per cent.
'In a challenging economic climate, these figures are testament to the efforts of our partners,' said Athron.
The retailer's market share hit a record 4.9 per cent, for the 12 weeks to mid-April, up 0.4 percentage points from 4.5 per cent the year before, according to the latest retail data from market analyst Kantar Worldpanel.
