Retailers’ Christmas performance – How Did They Do?

The competition for festive shoppers started weeks before Christmas. How did each retailer do? The Kantar Worldpanel figures reveal that overall the grocery market grew by 3.2% in the 12 weeks leading to 23 December. The strongest performances were recorded at both ends of the price spectrum. Comparison of retailer performances isn’t however quite straightforward as the results vary depending on the time period in question. Each retailer have released their own figures for different time periods. To make the comparison simpler and more objective, we use the Kantar Worldpanel 12 weeks to 23 December like-for-like data.

Sainsbury’s was again the only one of the big four retailers that managed to increase their market share compared to last year. In the 12 weeks leading to 23 December Sainsbury’s experienced the highest growth but in the 4 weeks before Christmas it was Tesco  that took the spotlight.
 

Tesco bounced back from last year’s poor festive performance with their like-for-like sales in the 12 weeks to 23 December increasing by 2.9% (4.2% for the 4 week to 25 December). In the same period Sainsbury’s growth was 3.4% and Asda increased their sales by 2.2%. Morrisons was the only one of the big four retailers to report a drop in like for like sales in the 12 weeks leading to 23 December, 0.6% compared to the previous year.

The discounters on the other hand were the real winners of Christmas 2012 showing very strong performance. Traditionally discounters have lost out on their share of the Christmas shopping as shoppers have tended to trade up in the past. Aldi increased their sales by 30.1% and hit their highest ever market share of 3.2%. Also Lidl and Iceland performed well, with 10.8% and 9.7% growth rates respectively. Shoppers didn’t however just go for the lowest price. At the other end of the price spectrum Waitrose recorded a strong performance and increased their sales from last year (5.4%).

 

Check out our thought piece on the impact of Christmas sales figures on future performance here