Super stores
Grocers ‘made £28.9bn’ in Christmas run-up
SUPERMARKETS had a cracking Christmas after raking in £1billion more than they did a year ago, experts claim.
Grocers saw sales jump 3.8 per cent in the final three months of 2017, according to industry number crunchers Kantar Worldpanel.
The rise was partly due to families “trading up” to posher ranges but it was also because households were hit by higher prices, up 3.7 per cent in the past year, said Kantar.
They estimate grocers notched up sales of £28.9billion in the final three months of the year, up from £27.8billion a year ago. Rival researchers Nielsen reckon £10.5billion was spent in December alone.
The figures emerged as Morrisons revealed a better than expected 2.8 per figures today, but behind a 3.1 per cent jump at Tesco, who will reveal what they made tomorrow.
Struggling Asda are forecast to have grown sales by 2.2 per cent over the 12 weeks, but discount rivals Aldi and Lidl both enjoyed a 16.8 per cent leap in trade, said Kantar.
The strong supermarket sales are in sharp contrast to many other retailers who suffered a dire Christmas as customers shopped online instead. Nielsen say 18 per cent of households bought groceries online in December, up from 16 per cent a year ago.
Mike Watkins, their head of retailer insight, said: “The supermarkets did well this Christmas.
“And that was amid fierce price competition and shoppers starting to feel the squeeze on disposable incomes.” Oil RSA RBS J Sainsbury SSE Severn Trent Serco Sports Direct Shell Sky Smith & Nephew Smiths WH 622.0 280.5 248.4 1310.0 2063.0 102.1 375.1 2569.0 1018.0 1278.5 2244.0 +1.4 +1.8 +7.4 -19.5 -68.0 +0.1 +0.1 +9.0 +3.5 -6.5 -12.0 TROUBLED burger chain Byron, who have just closed their Glasgow city centre branch, are asking landlords to cut their rents by up to 45 per cent.
The firm, who have 67 sites, want to cut the rent on five restaurants by a third and are asking for reductions of 45 per cent on another 20 for six months. If the owners of those 20 refuse to accept permanent cuts, they could close. THE boss of house builder Persimmon has defended his £110million bonus.
Jeff Fairburn was criticised for the windfall from a long-term scheme, part of an £800million payout for top managers.
Fairburn said: “If you go back to the point where the scheme was put in place about six years ago and what it was intended to achieve, it has done what it set out to do.”
Persimmon, like others, have been boosted by the Government’s Help to Buy incentive. The firm said revenues rose nine per cent to £3.4billion in 2017. Fairburn Euro ................................................... 1.105 Australian Dollar ........................... 1.673 Bulgarian Lev ................................ 2.061 Canadian Dollar ............................ 1.628 Croatian Kuna ............................... 7.940 Czech Koruna ................................ 27.141 Egyptian Pound ......................... 20.822 New Zealand Dollar ...................... 1.816 Polish Zloty ................................... 4.384 South African Rand .................... 16.184 Swiss Franc .................................... 1.286 Thai Baht ........................................ 41.131 Turkish Lira .................................... 4.774 UAE Dirham .................................... 4.789 US Dollar ......................................... 1.322