Premium retailer Waitrose said sales were 6.7 per cent up on last year for the week ending 26 July despite “turbulent conditions” in food retailing.
Managing director Mark Price said he expects to report a sales growth of around 4.5 per cent for the six months ending 26 July.
“This week brings to a close a remarkable half year for our business,” he said. “In a more turbulent time for food retailing than any of us can remember we have outperformed the industry, won more customers, increased our market share and won top awards from Which? Magazine, Verdict and Good Housekeeping.”
“Our performance for the week ending July 26 saw us finish H1 on a high note as we emerged from the period of tough comparatives against strong promotional activity last year.”
“I would like to thank partners everywhere for the hard work that's gone into achieving all of this,” he added.
Full trading results including like-for-like sales and profit will be announced on 11 September.
Price confirmed the retailer is in a period of “unprecedented investment”, which will have an impact on next month’s profit.“We are investing to enable us to compete effectively in this very tough market and to build a strong business for the future,' he said.
He added that areas of investments include online, new stores, new services and hospitality and using myWaitrose to better understand customers.
“Everything we're doing is enabling us to compete well now - continuing our five-year outperformance of the industry - and to build the modern Waitrose equipped to succeed in the very different grocery landscape of the future,” he said.
The most recent Kantar market share data, for the 12 weeks ending 20 July 2014, showed that Aldi’s 32 per cent growth rate has lifted its market share to 4.8 per cent – just behind Waitrose at 4.9 per cent.
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