Tesco is set to report its weakest Christmas sales figures since the recession of the early 1990s this week.
Analysts expect Tesco to post a 2.5 per cent increase in like-for-like sales, significantly less than rivals Morrisons who reported an estimated nine per cent increase, Asda (seven per cent) and 4.5 per cent at Sainsbury's.
The 2.5 per cent increase would represent its worst festive performance since 1993 after notching up 15 years of continually successful sales growth.
Clive Black, head of research at Shore Capital, said: “While muted for Tesco, we should not forget that it still has the highest sales, cash and profit densities in the industry.”
Despite the overall relatively low figures Tesco claims that in the three weeks before Christmas, sales of its Finest range were 32 per cent more than those of its Value brand as customers traded up to premium goods.
This week the British Retail Consortium (BRC) will confirm that last month’s sales were poor. Its retail sales monitor, produced with KPMG, is set to show that total sales fell about one per cent on a year earlier, with like-for-likes down about three per cent.
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