Upmarket UK retailer Waitrose has said that its total sales for the week leading up to 24 December were up 31.1% on the same period last year.
However, the retailer noted that the sales boost was largely due to Christmas Day and Boxing Day falling in the equivalent week in 2015.
Notably, for the following week, ending 31 December total sales were down 12.5% at the retailer, for the same reasons.
Amongst the biggest selling categories for the period were party food (up 14%), Christmas cakes (up 9%) and frozen desserts (up 11%). Meat alternatives to the traditional turkey, such as duck (up 13%) and beef (up 6%) also saw gains.
Celebrations were also on the agenda as the retailer recorded a 13% increase in champagne sales, and a 65% increase in English sparkling wine.
Commenting on Waitrose's performance, Barclays European Food Retail Equity Research said, "Waitrose enjoyed a very strong week running up to Christmas Day, with sales up 31% in the seven days to 24 December. However, this is distorted by the timing discussed above. Nevertheless, even looking over a longer period there is reason to think that Waitrose enjoyed a healthy Christmas period.
"To get a fully comprehensive view of Waitrose’s seasonal performance one would also need to include the first trading week of 2017 – a week which we would expect to be down given the calendar issues. If we assume similar patterns to 2011 (the last year when Christmas landed on Sunday) then Waitrose might deliver sales growth of 3.0-3.5% over the whole six-week period, still a tick-up from its performance earlier in the year and therefore a modestly encouraging sign for the industry. Some of the uptick may of course be inflation-based."
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
