Sainsbury’s boosted by “biggest ever” Christmas as it announces increase in staff pay
Sainsbury’s has reported its biggest ever Christmas with sales up 3.8% in the six weeks to 4 January.
Grocery sales rose by 3.8% in the period and by 4,1% in the retailer’s third quarter.
Sainsbury’s said customers shopped late this festive season which meant it saw record volumes in the days ahead of Christmas. Its Taste the Difference premium range was particularly popular with sales growing by 16% in the four key trading weeks to 4 January.
Trade was also boosted by record numbers of customers shopping Nectar Prices, some of which were new big basket shoppers who had switched from other supermarkets.
General merchandise and clothing sales were also up in the six weeks, rising by 3.4%. However, there was a decline of 0.1% in the category across across the third quarter as a 2..2% sales uplift in clothing was offset by lower general merchandise sales.
Simon Roberts, chief executive of J Sainsbury, said: “Driven by our leading combination of quality, value and service, we have achieved seven consecutive quarters of volume performance ahead of the market and further accelerated our two-year volume growth.
“The strength of our customer service and operational performance stood us apart in delivering our biggest ever Christmas.
“I would like to recognise and thank all of our colleagues who worked so hard to deliver record customer satisfaction and our suppliers who helped us deliver our best ever Christmas availability.”
Meanwhile, Argos sales increased by 1.1% in the six weeks as Sainsbury’s continued to improve the brand’s digital proposition, delivery offers, product range and promotions. However, sales were down 1.4% in the third quarter as growth in the key Black Friday and Christmas weeks was more than offset by the impact of subdued customer spending outside those periods
Sainsbury’s has also announced that it will be raising pay for hourly-paid colleagues by 5% in the year ahead, split into two separate increases.
Roberts added: “We believe in rewarding our colleagues well for delivering leading service and productivity and we will be the best paying UK grocer from March.”
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