Upmarket grocer Waitrose recorded its best ever week in terms of sales in the seven days before Christmas and saw decent growth for the whole of December, according to results released today.
Like-for-like (LFL) sales rose 3.8 per cent last month compared to the same period in 2010 and once new supermarkets and store extensions are included total sales were up by 9.5 per cent year-on-year.
Waitrose.com saw trading increase an impressive 49 per cent in the seven days to December 25th 2011 and turkey pre-orders jumped 66 per cent leading up to the holidays.
Mark Price, Managing Director of Waitrose, said: “More customers than ever before shopped across all our ranges this Christmas, from luxurious festive fare to essential Waitrose trimmings. We‘ve had a very strong Christmas.”
Compared to the same period in 2009, grocery sales grew by 19.1 per cent in total and 8.8 per cent LFL this year, highlighting not just the chain‘s growing popularity with shoppers but also its rapid expansion across the country in just a short space of time.
Other festive favourites sold well at Waitrose over the month, with sales of Christmas puddings up by over 50 per cent and mince pies up by more than a third.
Waitrose had a strong Christmas last year, making the double-digit year-on-year increases across many of its product lines all the more impressive.
