Shoppers’ late festive dash gives Sainsbury’s lift as staff get 5% pay rise
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Supermarket’s customers buy in ‘record volumes’ just before Christmas to boost grocery sales. A last-minute dash to secure Christmas shopping lifted sales at Sainsbury’s over the festive period, as the supermarket chain gave its staff a 5% pay rise.
The group said its customers were “shopping late and [buying] record volumes in the days ahead of Christmas”, helping to boost grocery sales by 3.8% in the six weeks to 4 January while sales at its Argos chain rose 1.1% in that period. The performance on groceries was similar to its rival Tesco, which on Thursday reported a 4% rise in underlying sales over the key festive period – with the UK’s two largest grocers thought to have benefited from difficulties at the smaller rivals Asda and Morrisons.
However, Sainsbury’s said sales at Argos, which sells non-food items from ironing boards to gaming consoles and sofas, were down 1.4% over the final three months of the year. The company said a rise in customer numbers and sales growth over Black Friday and Christmas weeks was more than offset by “subdued customer spending outside these key periods and a highly promotional environment”.
Sales of toys and large electronics, such as TVs, were hit particularly hard as shoppers reined in spending on non-essentials. Sainsbury’s said it was splitting the 5% pay rise for 118,000 employees into two parts – increasing to a minimum of £12.45 an hour from March and then £12.60 in August in order to “navigate a challenging cost environment”.
