Tesco hailed its strongest Christmas performance in three years today as recession-weary customers bought festive treats and its bumper voucher handout paid off.
In a trading update, Tesco said that group sales increased by 6.9% in the six weeks to January 9. Sales at its international business grew by 2.4%. It said that like-for-like sales in Asia, Europe and the US have continued the improving trend evident in the third quarter.
The supermarket said like-for-like sales in the UK in the six weeks period grew 4.9%, excluding petrol and adjusted for the change in VAT.
It said its Finest range was a 'real winner', growing 16%, while 35% more bottles of Champagne were sold than last year.
It also said that online sales were very strong in both food and non-food with total online sales growth approaching 20% in the six week period.
Tesco's performance was at the top end of analysts' expectations for the Christmas period and reflects a strong trading period across the industry.
UK rival Sainsbury's, which has already reported its figures, saw like-for-like sales growth of 4.2% in the quarter to January 2, excluding VAT and fuel.
