Sainsbury’s Christmas sales rise as online orders double

Christmas like-for-likes jumped 9.3% for the grocer, driven by sales of smaller turkeys, lamb and beef as consumers changed their plans at the last minute due to new government regulations.

Due to the government’s fresh ‘Stay at home’ message more customers than ever placed online orders.

The supermarket delivered 1.1 million orders in the 10 days before Christmas – double that in 2019.

Sainsbury’s said customers still treated themselves to premium fare, with sales of its Taste the Difference range up 11%, while champagne sales increased by 52%.

The grocer also sold a “record number” of steaks in time for New Year’s Eve, with more consumers celebrating at home.

Sainsbury’s also said that, for the 15 weeks to January 2, like-for-like sales grew 8.6% excluding fuel, while total retail sales were up 6.8%.

Grocery sales grew 7.4%, with online grocery soaring 128% during the third quarter.

General merchandise and clothing also fared better than expected, up 6% and 0.4% respectively.

Sales at the retailer’s Argos chain also increased 8.4%, beating expectations for Black Friday and Christmas.

The supermarket has raised its full-year guidance up from £270m to at least £330m in the year to March 2021, after forgoing business rates relief of £410m.

Chief executive Simon Roberts said: “As we enter our third phase of tighter restrictions and national lockdowns, my number-one priority remains keeping our colleagues and customers safe. 

“The last few months have been really tough for many people and we are all dealing with a lot of change and uncertainty again. Given these challenging circumstances, we really focused on doing the best possible job for our customers this Christmas. 

“We made a strong start to delivering our Food First plan and we are also clear on the opportunities to further improve our offer as we look ahead for 2021. 

“At Christmas we focused on offering our customers great prices, great quality and great service, and I feel really proud that Sainsbury’s customer satisfaction scores were the highest ever in the key Christmas week. We have started the new year with a strong value offer, with Price Lock currently on over 2,500 everyday products.

“We remain focused on delivering the plan we outlined in November and look forward to providing a further update on early progress at our preliminary results in April.”