Tesco boss Ken Murphy said the supermarket has celebrated its “biggest ever Christmas” as it achieved its highest market share since 2016 driven by its focus on value, quality and service.

The grocery giant saw a 2.8% increase in group like-for-like sales in the 13 weeks to 23 November and a 3.8% rise in the six weeks to 4 January. Over the festive period, UK LFL sales jumped 4.1%.

Food sales were up 4.7% over the period, driven by volume growth and a “particularly strong contribution” from fresh food. Non-food sales, excluding toys, rose 4%.

Sales of the supermarket’s premium Finest range, which included around 300 festive products, rose 15.5%.

Online sales surged 10.8% over the Christmas period, spurred by 1.2 million customers placing orders on Tesco’s Whoosh instant delivery service.

Tesco chief executive Ken Murphy: “I am very proud of the entire Tesco team and the way we served customers this Christmas.

“We invested to bring the best value, quality and service to everyone, no matter how or where they shopped with us. As a result, we delivered our biggest ever Christmas, with continued market share growth and switching gains.

“Our strong performance reflects the investments we have made, positioning Tesco as the UK’s cheapest full-line grocer for over two years, improving quality across all our ranges, with more than half of this year’s Christmas range new or improved, and providing the best experience for our customers in-store and online, supported by an extra 28,000 colleagues over the Christmas period.

“I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone at Tesco for their hard work in delivering a great Christmas. As we start 2025, we look forward to continuing to offer our customers the very best products and experience at Tesco.”

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