Waitrose has most successful Christmas on record

Grocery chain Waitrose has seen its most successful Christmas on record with total branch sales (excluding fuel) for the 12 trading days ending December 31 up 6.5% on last year and 4.1% on a like for like basis.

Sales on Monday December 23 were £51m – the highest ever taken by the business in a single day, with an average of 22,000 items going through checkouts every minute.

For the five week period ending on Christmas Eve, total sales (excluding fuel) were £736m – up 5.4% on the equivalent period last year and 3.1% on a like for like basis.

Online grocery sales also saw stellar growth: up 33.4% for the five-week period. Click and Collect was a strong driver of footfall with 619,000 collections from Waitrose branches during the same period.

Waitrose said volume growth, driven by increased price competitiveness and the success of the myWaitrose card, was a key factor in this sales uplift with customer visits up by 10.4% per cent on last year for the five week period.

Waitrose md Mark Price said: “Every year retailers say that Christmas is late, but with some justification in 2013, as customers phased their shopping in line with the mid-week fall of the main festivities. Partners across all our branches and our supply chain did a brilliant job in coping with the late influx of shoppers.

“Our performance this Christmas continues our sustained growth for the last five years. We’ve done well by giving people exactly what they want: high quality products, excellent value and superb service both in our shops and online.”