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Festive trade cheers Sainsbury's Festive trade cheers Sainsbury's
(30 minutes later)
Sainsbury's has said it has just had its "best ever Christmas performance", after enjoying strong sales growth in the last three months of 2008. Sainsbury's has said it enjoyed its "best ever Christmas performance" after recording strong sales growth in the last three months of 2008.
Reporting its results for the 13 weeks to 3 January, the supermarket group saw like-for-like sales excluding petrol rise 4.5% from a year earlier. In the 13 weeks to 3 January, the supermarket group saw like-for-like sales, excluding petrol, rise by 4.5% from a year earlier.
Sainsbury's added that 23 December was its busiest ever trading day. Sainsbury's added that 23 December was its busiest trading day to date.
Trading was helped by a huge increase in demand for its "basics" range, which saw sales rise 40% from a year ago.
Total sales, which includes new store openings, were up 5.3% compared with the same period a year before.Total sales, which includes new store openings, were up 5.3% compared with the same period a year before.
Sainsbury's has 509 supermarkets, 276 smaller convenience store outlets and employs 150,000 people.
'Good progress''Good progress'
"The economic environment remains particularly challenging, and we expect this to continue in 2009," said Sainsbury's chief executive Justin King. Despite the better-than-expected trading performance, Sainsbury's chief executive Justin King said the economic environment remained "particularly challenging", and that this was expected to continue in 2009.
"However, our continued investment in price and promotions, along with universal appeal and a wide customer base means we are well positioned to continue our good progress." Concerns still persist that a highly vulnerable UK economy leaves Sainsbury more exposed than rivals such as Tesco Keith Bowman, Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers class="" href="http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/fds/hi/business/market_data/shares/3/23210/intraday.stm">See Sainsbury's share price
Sainsbury's like-for-like sales, excluding petrol, were better than market expectations of 3.8%. The firm said its online sales had risen by 27% during the quarter, helped by a record number of orders in the week before Christmas.
The firm said its online sales rose 27% during the quarter, helped by a record number of orders in the week before Christmas. Sainsbury's also said that it had enjoyed "good" growth in its non-food business.
Sainsbury's has 509 supermarkets and 276 smaller convenience store outlets, and employs 150,000 people. It said it was "delighted" with sales of Tu, its own-brand clothing range, and said it was now the eighth-largest retailer by volume in the UK clothing market, with a share of 2.3%.
"Sainsbury appears to be gauging the mood of UK consumers extremely well," said Keith Bowman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers.
"The group is capitalising on its perceived offering of quality products, combining aggressive pricing promotions in hope of capturing consumers' desire to 'feel good' in the face of an economic downturn whilst reducing expenditure."
However, Mr Bowman added that there were worries that price-cutting promotions could hit profit margins.
And he added: "Concerns still persist that a highly vulnerable UK economy leaves Sainsbury more exposed than rivals such as Tesco, with its international portfolio."