Morrisons (LON:MRW) provided a pleasant surprise with its Christmas trading update on Tuesday but Sainsbury's (LON:SBRY) appears to have won the Christmas trading battle.
Market research group Kantar Worldpanel said J. Sainsbury was the only one of the big four supermarkets – the others being Tesco (LON:TSCO), WalMart-owned Asda and Morrisons – to grow sales and market share over the Christmas trading period.
The hard discounters Aldi and Lidl also grew sales and took market share, as did up-market grocer Waitrose and convenience store specialist, The Co-Operative.
Kantar reckons Sainsbury's sales were 0.8% higher in the 12 weeks to 3 January, pushing up its market share by one-tenth of a percentage point.
By Kantar's reckoning Tesco's sales were down 2.7%; Asda's were 3.5% lower and Morrisons' were off 2.6%.
Investors, possibly while humming 'I've been down so long, it looks like up to me', pushed up Tesco's shares by 6.4%, putting Sainsbury's 3.0% increase in the shade.
Morrisons was up almost 9% after it announced a rise in like-for-like sales in the run-up to Christmas and said its recovery plan was on track. The indicated decline in total sales reflects store closures at Morrisons.
Waitrose's sales were up 1.5% on a year earlier, according to Kantar, while the Co-Op's sales were 1.4% higher.
The British grocery market overall saw sales fall 0.2% year-on-year, as prices fell 1.8% from a year earlier.
“Shoppers reaped the benefit of falling prices this Christmas, with groceries 1.8% cheaper than last year,” said Fraser McKevitt, the head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel.
“The amount spent on a typical Christmas dinner fell even faster – down by 2.2% – mainly due to cheaper poultry and traditional vegetable trimmings. Alcohol sales increased thanks to a surge in popularity for sparkling wines including Champagne and Prosecco, which increased in value by 11%,” he added.