Successful festive period for leading supermarkets
Tesco and M&S both enjoyed fruitful festive periods, with sales seeing a huge jump in the run up to Christmas.
Tesco saw like-for-like UK sales increase by 7.2% in the Christmas period, allowing them to maintain a market share of 27.5%.
The grocer said its strong performance was driven by a focus on value & quality, and strong execution across every part of the shopping trip.
Tesco added that it had seen constant growth across both large stores and its convenience branches, with online sales also returning to growth across the period, with sales 59% higher than pre-pandemic levels.
Ken Murphy, Tesco chief executive, said: “We go into the new calendar year with good momentum and I am confident we can continue to maintain our competitiveness and deliver a strong performance relative to the market despite the challenging conditions ahead.”
M&S also enjoyed a strong festive period, seeing an increase in UK sales of 9.7% for the third quarter of its 2022/2023 financial year. This was a like-for-like increase of 7.2%.
Stuart Machin, M&S chief executive said: “M&S sustained trading momentum through the peak quarter and both Food and Clothing & Home have delivered strong growth.
M&S Food outperformed the market on volume and value in the critical four-week Christmas period for the second year running and reached its highest ever recorded market share. Clothing and Home delivered another outstanding performance, maintaining its market leadership position with its highest market share in seven years.”