£11.7bn festive record for UK supermarkets

Britons spent £ 1 1 .7 billion in supermarkets th roughou t December in the sector’s busiest month ever as restrictions saw restaurants, bars and cafés shut across most of the UK, new figures show.

Data from Kantar revealed December helped sales jump 11.4% to £32.7bn over the 12 weeks to December 27.

Supermarket trading was boosted by the £4bn that would normally have been spent on food and drink outside the home over the Christmas season.

Morrisons said customers did their Christmas shopping earlier than usual, with sales of Champagne up 64% compared with a year ago, along with 40% jumps in salmon sales – selling 500,000 whole fish – and 14% rises in Free From mince pies.

In the nine weeks to January 3, like- for- like sales were up 8.5%, and in the six months to the same date they rose 8.3% compared with a year ago, helped by strong sales online and increases in its wholesale business of 24.4%. The supermarket also managed to open three new stores during the past six months.

Profits were expected to be between £190 million and £210m once the £230m business rates payment is made after the supermarket waived its right to claim the tax holiday.

There had been fears that some products might not make it to supermarket shelves due to the Covid-19 border closures in December between the UK and France and subsequently over Brexit fears. But chief executive David Potts said products continue to arrive without delays.

Morrisons revealed its car parks will be used as Covid vaccine centres, with three stores hosting jabs from Monday and a further 47 sites being made available to the government.

Mr Potts added that, despite the introduction of new national lockdowns in England and Scotland, the supermarket will not introduce limits on certain products initially.

“We haven’t got limits on things like pasta and flour and all of those things that people seem to stock up on,” he said.

“I think we’ll see how the British people handle the news. We can turn it on fairly sharpish and it’s really making sure that everyone has stock.”

The first lockdown in March saw supermarket shelves across the country stripped bare and bosses are keen to avoid similar scenes.

He added that the new lockdowns – including the order for vulnerable people to shield – were likely to affec t the same 2,500 workers at the supermarket who were forced to shield during the March lockdown.

As a result of extra Covidrelated costs, the supermarket will spend £10m and has seen a fall in takings due to café closures and lower fuel sales.

LOVELY BUBBLY: Morrisons reported a surge in sales of Champagne at Christmas.