Sainsbury’s won grocery market share for the sixth consecutive Christmas period after delivering its biggest festive trading performance to date.

In its third-quarter trading update for the 16 weeks ending 3 January 2026, the supermarket giant posted grocery sales growth of 5.4%, driven by increased customer switching and bigger basket sizes.

Sainsbury’s, which said it was the only major grocer to grow basket size over the period, reported that fresh food led performance, with sales up 8% and boosted by the retailer selling 20% more British turkeys year on year.

The retailer’s Taste the Difference premium own label continued to outperform, with fresh sales up 15% following the launch of more than 260 new products in the quarter.

Meanwhile, value investment also remained central to the strategy, with the first Christmas featuring both Nectar Prices and personalised Your Nectar Prices. Sainsbury’s said customers saved an average of £27 on their big Christmas shop.

Online grocery sales rose 14%, supported by growth in OnDemand and improved availability, while convenience stores delivered a record-breaking Christmas, particularly in fresh categories.

However, general merchandise and clothing sales fared less well,  falling 1.1% amid weaker market conditions, while Argos sales declined 1%, although the retailer said it continued to gain volume share in a highly promotional market.

Chief executive Simon Roberts said investment in areas such as value, quality, service and availability had strengthened the group’s position through the festive trading period, giving a boost to the business heading into the final quarter.

“We have won grocery market share for the sixth consecutive Christmas period, again delivering our winning combination of value, quality, service and availability for customers,” he said.

“When we strengthened our profit guidance in November, we said we planned to invest in the strength of our competitive position through the most important trading period of the year.”

Sainsbury’s maintained its full-year outlook, expecting to deliver retail underlying operating profit of more than £1bn, while raising free cash flow guidance to over £550m.

Roberts added: “We expected the market to become more competitive with customers spending more carefully and we invested in balanced choices to offer great value for money, outstanding quality and innovation and leading customer service and availability, both in store and online.

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