Asda has reported a “good performance” in the run-up to Christmas, despite Arctic weather conditions.

Asda said December 23 was its busiest day as a record 4m customers came through its doors. Over the fortnight to that date, 11 stores generated sales of more than £7m compared to nine last year

The Walmart-owned grocer and general merchandise giant said that shoppers had spread their main Christmas spending over a two-week period rather than leaving it until the last minute after learning lessons from bad weather last year.

And thanks to its ‘Operation Snowflake’ in readiness for bad weather, Asda’s shops were well prepared to cope with the bad weather.

Asda chief executive Andy Clarke said: “The combination of bad weather and people working hard to budget this year has meant the Christmas shop has been spread across a longer period of time, with shoppers making a couple of trips to stock up for the festive season.

“Our shoppers weren’t the only ones to learn the lessons of last year. We have worked incredibly hard this year to make sure our deliveries got through and customers could reach our stores, whatever the British weather threw at them.”

Asda also opened 105 of its stores on Boxing Day, when more than 500,000 customers visited the retailer.

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