Morrisons sold more than 70,000 fresh whole turkeys in the two months to December 25th 2012, the retailer has revealed as the release of its latest financial results approaches.
The retailer released details of the quantities of food sold during the festive period, while the Guardian predicted that next Monday‘s financial results will reveal a drop in like-for-like sales for the six weeks to December 30th.
As well as 70,000 turkeys, shoppers purchased more than 1.2 million Christmas puddings, 2,000 tonnes of sprouts, 2.5 million packs of stuffing and 1.1 million jars of cranberry source.
A spokesperson for the retailer said: “Despite these being testing times, we were delighted to see shoppers as eager as ever to celebrate this special day with family and friends and worked around the clock to ensure our shelves were fully stocked with festive Christmas must haves right up until Christmas Eve.”
But analysts believe that Morrisons has suffered a weak Christmas, as its budget-conscious customers gravitate toward discount supermarkets Aldi and Lidl, and because has yet to set up an online branch.
Predicting that Morrisons‘ total sales would be down by around one per cent and LFL by 2.5 per cent in Monday‘s report, Investec Bank analyst Dave McCarthy said: “In sales terms, Morrisons has been disappointing for a while.
“This is in part due to it lacking representation in the growth channels of the internet and convenience.
“This puts Morrisons at a sales disadvantage to Tesco and Sainsbury, but not as big a profit disadvantage as first seems.
“The internet and convenience are not as profitable as large stores, so even though Tesco and Sainsbury sales are helped by these channels, the contribution to profits is limited.
“But this does not alter the fact that Morrisons sales are poor and the impact of volume declines on operational gearing will be having a geared effect on store profitability.”
