Sainsbury’s like-for-likes excluding fuel jumped 7.4% over the golden quarter as as “more customers are doing more of their grocery shopping” with the supermarket.
Total retail sales, excluding fuel, for the 16 weeks to 6 January were up 6.5% while grocery sales jumped 9.3%.
Over the 6 weeks to 6 January, grocery sales jumped 8.6% as Sainsbury’s said it delivered volume growth ahead of the market for the fourth consecutive Christmas.
However, general merchandise sales were down 3.7% over the six week period or 0.6% over quarter, impacted by the closure of Argos in the Republic of Ireland.
Despite the decline, Sainsbury’s said that Argos outperformed “a weak and highly promotional general merchandise market” and noted it faced strong comparatives last year when the chain benefitted from the postal strike and strong demand for energy saving products.
Meanwhile, third quarter clothing sales dropped 1.7%.
Subscribe to Retail Gazette for free
Sign up here to get the latest news straight into your inbox each morning
The grocery giant continues to expect underlying pre-tax profit for the year of between £670m and £700m.
Sainsbury’s CEO Simon Roberts said: “We’ve worked hard to really deliver for our customers this quarter and have grown grocery volumes ahead of the market for the fourth Christmas in a row.
“More customers are choosing to shop at Sainsbury’s, recognising our determined focus on value, product innovation and service.”
Roberts added that this Christmas was “powered by Nectar Prices” with participation of the loyalty card hitting 90% on weekly shops over the quarter.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
