UK supermarket Sainsbury’s achieved its “biggest ever Christmas” as it won grocery market share for the fifth consecutive Christmas.
The retailer said customers had shopped late, with record volumes in the days ahead of Christmas. It also said its value perception had “continued to improve”, reflecting its value position and highlighting the launch of Aldi Price Match in its convenience stores in November.
Sainsbury’s introduced over 300 new Taste the Difference products, stating that this helped its premium range deliver sales growth of 16% in the key Christmas weeks. Fresh food sales across fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and poultry outperformed the market throughout the quarter.
Total grocery performance during Q3 was 4.1%, reaching 3.8% for Christmas (six weeks to 4th January 2025). Total sales hit 3.7% in Q3, increasing 1% for Christmas to reach 3.8%.
2024/25 Outlook
Sainsbury’s said it expected to deliver full year retail underlying operating profit in line with consensus and the midpoint of its £1,010-£1,060 million guidance, representing a growth of 7%. It said this reflected “continued operating leverage” from Sainsbury’s grocery volume growth, strong growth in Nectar profit contribution and delivery of cost saving targets.
It also expects its total Financial Services underlying profit to be around £30 million, with previous guidance having the number between £15 million and £25 million.
Simon Roberts, chief executive of J Sainsbury plc, said: “We have won grocery market share for the fifth consecutive Christmas, with more customers choosing Sainsbury’s for their big shop. Driven by our leading combination of quality, value and service, we have achieved seven consecutive quarters of volume performance ahead of the market and further accelerated our two-year volume growth.
“The strength of our customer service and operational performance stood us apart in delivering our biggest ever Christmas. Customers shopped later than ever and we achieved our highest ever sales in the final days before Christmas. I would like to recognise and thank all of our colleagues who worked so hard to deliver record customer satisfaction and our suppliers who helped us deliver our best ever Christmas availability.
“Customers trust Sainsbury’s to deliver great quality food and drinks. Over half of big Christmas baskets contained a Taste the Difference product, helping Taste the Difference deliver sales growth of 16%, outperforming all key competitors. Customers chose Sainsbury’s for their big festive celebrations with party food sales up nearly 40% and more than 200 bottles of fizz sold every minute in the key days ahead of Christmas, over one third of which were Taste the Difference. Customers are also recognising our consistently strong value more and more, helped by record numbers of customers shopping Nectar Prices, driving gains from competitors as we attract new big basket customers to Sainsbury’s.”
