Record Christmas for Sainsbury's

12th Jan 2011 07:00

Supermarket giant Sainsbury's had its best Christmas ever, with better than expected third quarter sales, a growing market share and a record number of customers despite the snow.Like for like sales excluding fuel rose 3.6% in the 14 weeks to 8 January, or 5.4% including petrol, while total sales grew 6% and 7.5% respectively.That's the strongest quarter of the year by far, beating the 2.9% like for like increase excluding fuel posted in the second quarter, and the 1.1% registered in the first three months.More than 24.5m customers passed through the doors in the seven days up to and including Christmas Eve. The retailer now has 16.6% of the market, up 0.3%, according to Kantar total till roll data for the 12 weeks to 26 December.Non-food grew three times quicker than the food business, led by lingerie and clothing accessories, up 45% on the year before. Books and electrical items are also selling well.Difficulty getting to stores because of the snow and smart shoppers choosing to avoid the pre-Christmas crush sent internet orders to a record high "The business continues to perform well in a challenging consumer environment, as customers are faced with fuel and VAT increases, combined with uncertain employment prospects," chief executive Justin King said."Our universal customer appeal together with our accelerated growth plans means we are well placed to make continued good progress in 2011."