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Sales at Aldi through December jumped by 26% to a record high of £1.4bn as Christmas trading was boosted by the World Cup.

The discount supermarket said is surging sales growth reflected increased demand for its products amid the cost of living crisis.

Fresh meat sales saw strong growth, with fresh poultry and pork options both up over 28%, with sales of alternative roasting joints such as its Specially Selected Decorative Gammon proving particularly popular, in addition to Aldi’s traditional turkey options.

Aldi also saw sales of chilled desserts and fresh cheeses jump by almost 30% and 50% respectively, while snacks such as crisps and nuts were up over 40% as the World Cup coincided with the run up to Christmas for the first time.

Giles Hurley, CEO of Aldi UK and Ireland, said: “This year, Christmas was all about family and football as people came together to celebrate in a way we’ve not enjoyed for years. I’m immensely proud of our amazing colleagues who once again went above and beyond to deliver an amazing Christmas for our customers.

“As the UK’s cheapest supermarket, we were able to help shoppers enjoy the Christmas they deserved and provide them with the highest quality products at the most affordable prices.

“As we head into a new year, our promise to customers is that they will always get the UK’s lowest prices at Aldi, no matter what.”

The discounter said that customers bought more than 48 million mince pies, 38 million pigs-in-blankets and more than 1,700 tonnes of sprouts in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

Meanwhile, the supermarket continued its year-round partnership with Neighbourly by donating thousands of meals on Christmas and New Year’s Eve to local charities, food banks and community groups across the country, in addition to its £250,000 Emergency Winter Foodbank Fund.

Morning update

Hotel Chocolat has agreed a new strategic partnership in Japan after the collapse of its previous joint venture in the country.

The chocolatier has announced this morning it has signed a deal with Tokyo-based Eat Creator Corporation to continue the brand in the country.

Eat Creator will be providing growth capital, new supply side know-how and proven expertise in food brand development for the Japanese consumer.

Hotel Chocolat will hold 20% equity in the newly established vehicle, with brand royalty revenues going to Hotel Chocolat

Some 21 branded Hotel Chocolat stores will initially be within the newly established vehicle, supported by a customer database of more than 200,000 registered Japanese consumers.

Hotel Chocolat said the agreement supports its global strategic ambitions, applying the key business learnings from the first four years of trading in Japan.

Last year the group was forced to write off £30m its previous Japanese business went into insolvency.

Angus Thirlwell, co-founder and CEO of Hotel Chocolat, said: “Our new partner is well equipped to optimise the brand’s potential for Japan, bringing proven expertise, new capital and a natural alignment on brand values. We are looking forward to combining the ingredients of Eat Creator with the ingredients of Hotel Chocolat into a powerful recipe for our next chapter in Japan.”

Satoshi Nagasuna, Eat Creator Corporation CEO, added: “Like many Japanese people, I have watched the positive impact that the Hotel Chocolat brand has made in our market over the last four challenging years.

“When the opportunity presented itself to become directly involved with the business, we realised that our skills would be a good match with what was needed to take Hotel Chocolat Japan to the next level. We are excited to get started.”

Elsewhere, Springboard UK footfall data suggests retail shopper numbers were up 7.2% year-on-year in the week following Christmas, but remain down by almost 20% year-on-year.

Springboard said the relatively modest uplift from last year would have partly been due to the offset in dates, with the week commencing on Christmas Day 2022 versus Boxing Day in 2021, which provided an additional trading day last year.

The gap from the 2019 level last week was -19.7%, with much of this gap being a consequence of the date offset which meant the same week in 2019 commenced 29th December, with six full trading days.

Footfall on Boxing Day 2022 was +38.8% higher than on Boxing Day 2021 but -18.2% lower than on Boxing Day 2019.

Over the six days from Boxing Day, footfall was 16.3% higher than on the same dates in 2021, with double digit rises on each day other than on 31st December when footfall was just 1.9%.

Diane Wehrle, Insights Director at Springboard, commented: “Not surprisingly, footfall across UK retail destinations during the week of Christmas was significantly lower (27.7%) than in the week before that in the final trading week.

“Footfall was higher than in the same week last year, but not significantly, despite Christmas 2021 being overshadowed by Covid.

“What is significant - and what has been an emerging trend for several years - is that footfall on 27th December 2022 was higher than on Boxing Day. Furthermore, footfall rose further on the following two days peaking on 29th December, with the first decline from the day before occurring on 30th December, which then continued into New Year’s Eve 2022. This demonstrates that whilst Boxing Day is somewhat of a marker in the annual retail calendar, the key dates for retail spending are now the subsequent days when consumers are likely to have completed visits with family and friends and have time to make trips out.”

On the first day of trading of 2023, the FTSE 100 has jumped 2% to 7,596.9pts, its highest level since April 2022.

Early risers include McBride, up 6.8% to 21.9p, Just Eat Takeaway.com, up 5.4% to 1,831.8p, Ocado, up 4.3% to 643.2p and Hotel Chocolat, up 4.1% to 161.8p.

Fallers include Virgin Wines, down 2.9% to 68p, Haleon, down 1.3% to 323.1p and Finsbury Food Group, down 1% to 91.1p.

This week in the City

The main rush of Christmas trading updates will come out next week, but they will begin to filter out later on in this shortened week.

The first indication of Christmas grocery figures is scheduled to be tomorrow from Kantar with its monthly sales figures for the period leading to Christmas due out on Wednesday.

In terms of company news, B&M European Value Retail and Greggs are scheduled to update the market on Thursday alongside clothing retailer Next.

Boots owner Walgreens Boots Alliance is also scheduled to release its quarterly sales update on Thursday.

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