‘Encouraging and resilient’ festive trading from Co-op
THE Co-operative Group has reported healthy like-for-like trading figures for the festive period with its convenience stores and pharmacy business both reporting growth of more than 5%
The mutual said its general food sales in the three weeks to January 5 were 2.2% higher on a like-for like basis. The strong showing by the convenience stores was attributed to targeted promotions and new brand advertising activity.
The results come on top of a good corresponding performance in 2011, which means that on a like for like basis, Christmas and New Year’s sales have grown by 5.3 per cent over the past two years.
Growth over the festive period eclipsed growth of 0.3% like-for-like growth in the food business in the last 13 weeks of the year.
The Manchester-headquartered group said Christmas Eve was the busiest day of the year for its food business, with takings of more than £35m due to a last-minute rush.
Top-selling Christmas and New Year lines were champagne with sales +29%,
and chilled seasonal desserts +32%.
Elsewhere within the group’s retail operations there was a strong trading performance in the Pharmacy division, where over the counter sales were up 7.7% on a like-for-like basis with strong growth witnessed in the gift category (+55 per cent) and the core health categories (+ 8 per cent).
Co-operative Electrical, the Group’s online business, enjoyed a 15.2% uplift on the same period last year. Best sellers included tablet PCs (+68%), printers (+33%) and laptops (+20%).
Group chief executive Peter Marks, said: “These results represent a really encouraging and resilient performance in some of the most testing trading conditions for 40 years and build on a good result achieved over the same period last year.
“The figures also helped to sustain the positive sales momentum we have seen in the second half of this year and whilst conditions remain very challenging we now enter 2013 in a position where we expect to make continued progress.
“Against a difficult economic environment, customers were keen to celebrate Christmas and the New Year with their friends and family. By continuing to focus on quality and value, The Co-operative, with our stores conveniently located in their communities, helped them do just that.”
