Supermarkets have posted record sales over the crucial Christmas trading period as shoppers spent £480 million more at the tills compared to last year.
Morrisons and Tesco saw the biggest growth out of the big four, with 1.2 per cent and 1.3 per cent collectively. Sainsbury’s slipped by 0.1 per cent, though it delivered strong online growth, and Asda dropped by 2.4 per cent, an improvement on the 4.7 per cent decline reported in December.
The figures, published by Kantar for the 12 weeks to 1 January, also showed that Iceland grew by 9.6 per cent, Waitrose by three per cent and Co-op by 2.4 per cent. Aldi grew sales by 11.8 per cent, while Lidl saw sales growth of 7.5 per cent.
Kantar head of retail and consumer insight, Fraser McKevitt, said: “Tesco’s recent sales revival continued with an increase of 1.3 per cent particularly helped by its performance within fresh food. However, this wasn’t enough to stop its market share from falling back by 0.1 percentage points to 28.2 per cent.
“Morrisons, whose overall sales were held back in 2016 by the impact of a number of store closures, marked a strong start to the year with growth of 1.2 per cent – its first period of growth since June 2015.”
McKevitt said that discounters tend to take a slightly smaller share of the market in December as consumers revert to traditional retailers for the holiday season, but both Aldi and Lidl saw sales accelerate thanks to growing interest in their premium lines.
“Year-on-year market growth has been helped by comparisons to a weaker Christmas in 2015, but sales were also buoyed by strong consumer appetite for festive celebration after a turbulent year. Shoppers spent £480 million more at the tills than in 2015, leading to record sales for the Christmas period,” he said.
“With Christmas Eve falling on a Saturday and giving shoppers more time to buy their final festive trimmings, the single busiest shopping day of the year was Friday 23 December with over half the population braving a grocery store. The typical household spend for December reached £365 this year – £52 more than the average month.”
According to McKevitt, the long-anticipated return to inflation suggests that the speed of growth in the overall market will continue to speed up in 2017, while both consumers and retailers will be looking at ways to avoid increasing the cost of the weekly shop.
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