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% in the final three months of 2017, said 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% in the past year, said Kantar.

It estimates that grocers notched up sales of nearly £28.9bn in the final three months of the year, up from £27.8bn a year ago.

Rival researchers Nielsen reckon £10.5bn was spent in December alone.

The figures emerged as Morrisons revealed a better than expected 2.8% rise in sales for the past 10 weeks.

Boss David Potts said: “More customers found more things they wanted to buy at competitive prices at Morrisons this Christmas.”

Kantar said Morrisons’ sales rose 2.1% over the 12 weeks to the end of December. That was better than the 2% increase at Sainsbury’s, which publishes its own figures today, but behind a 3.1% jump at Tesco, which will reveal what it made tomorrow.

Struggling Asda is forecast to have grown sales by 2.2% over the 12 weeks, but discount rivals Aldi and Lidl both enjoyed a 16.8% leap in trade, said Kantar.

The strong sales for supermarkets are in sharp contrast to many other retailers who suffered a dire Christmas as customers ditched the high street and shopped online instead. Nielsen says 18% of households bought groceries online in December, up from 16% a year ago.

Mike Watkins, its 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.”