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Tesco and Marks & Spencer have revealed strong Christmas numbers this morning as consumers splashed out on premium ranges for the big day.
Both retailers won shoppers from rivals to boost market share, with the Tesco Finest and M&S Gastropub range proving popular.
Like-for-like food sales at Tesco rose 4.7% over the six weeks to 4 January, while M&S registered an increase of 8.7% in its food sales in the 13 weeks to 28 December.
The two groups said growth was driven by higher volumes, with both also claiming record performances over the festive period.
Tesco CEO Ken Murphy said he was “very proud” of his team for delivering “our biggest ever Christmas, with continued market share growth and switching gains”.
And M&S chief Stuart Machin called it “another good Christmas” , building on a strong performance in the prior year.
Full stories on the Christmas results for both retailers are live on thegrocer.co.uk now. For more details on Tesco, click here. And for a full story on M&S, click here.
Morning update
Hilton Food Group full-year trading update
Tesco meat & fish supplier Hilton Food Group has benefitted from the success of its retail partner, reporting a “strong” Christmas trading period.
Volumes for the group’s core meat offer increased 4% year on year, with a strong performance across all three of its geographical operating regions.
CEO Steve Murrells said: “This success was driven by another solid Christmas trading period and underpinned by our innovative ranges and the growing popularity of beef as a festive centrepiece.”
B&M European Value Retail third-quarter results
UK revenues fell by 2.8% on a like-for-like basis at discounter B&M Bargains over the 13 weeks to 28 December to £1.4bn.
The discounter said like-for-like growth in December was positive.
There was also a 5.6% decline in Q3 at the group’s frozen food retailer Heron Foods.
CEO Alex Russo said the performance across the ‘golden quarter’ reflected “disciplined operational execution across our businesses, driving volume and in turn profit growth”.
However, B&M trimmed its annual profits forecast, with adjusted EBITDA now expected to be in the range of £620m to £650m, down from £620m to £660m at the the half-year stage.
Greggs Q4 trading update
Subdued footfall on the high street has held back Greggs over Christmas, with like-for-like sales for the fourth quarter to 28 December up just 2.5%.
However, the bakery chain celebrated surpassing £2bn in annual revenues as it opened a record number of new shops.
Total sales for the year increased by 11.3%, with a like-for-like rise of 5.5%.
“We enter 2025 with a strong pipeline of new shop opportunities, and we continue to broaden our menu and enhance our digital capabilities, whilst also developing our supply chain capacity to deliver our growth strategy,” CEO Roisin Currie said.
BRC-NielsenIQ Shop Price Index
Food inflation remained unchanged in December as the supermarkets offered big discounts to win over shoppers during the crucial festive period, according to new data from the British Retail Consortium released this morning.
The annual rate has eased considerable since the start of 2023 and, at 1.8% last month, remained at the lowest rate since December 2021.
Fresh food inflation sat at 1.2%, with no change from the previous month, and ambient inflation edged up from 2.7% to 2.8%.
Mike Watkins, head of retailer and business insight at NielsenIQ, which draws up the monthly shop price index for the BRC, said: “During December, shoppers benefited from both lower inflation than last year and bigger discounts as both food and non-food retailers were keen to drive sales after a slow start to the quarter.”
Morning share prices
Investors reacted extremely negatively to the retail Christmas updates, sending shares into the red as markets opened. It signals market sentiment for the upcoming year, with shareholders clearly worried about the effect of the barrage of additional costs and taxes on retailers and how the consumer will behave now Christmas is out the way.
M&S plunged 6.2% to 353.5p, while Tesco fell 2.7% in the early going to 359.9p.
Sainsbury’s, which updates tomorrow, also tumbled by 4.7% to 259.2p.
B&M was also slammed, as the share price plummeted 8.8% to 318p, but Greggs was the worst hit of the companies reporting today, with its value sinking 10% to 2,364p.
Meanwhile, Hilton Food Group was also down 2.4% to 874p.
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