Tesco is set to emerge top of the Christmas retailing battle, say analysts, who predict the big supermarkets will have fared better than the high street.
As the multiples prepare to reveal Christmas figures, City analysts said sales would not be impressive for most, but neither would they be disappointing.
Richard Ratner at Seymour Pierce said: “Tesco will be in the lead, with Asda lagging, JS stabilised and Morrisons doing well but still with much to do at Safeway. Overall, food has done better than non-food. And Tesco and Asda may have done better in non-food than many on the high street.”
Asda said it enjoyed “another record Christmas”, with 249 of its 271 stores breaking the £1m sales barrier, but would not confirm total sales - these will be incorporated into Wal-Mart final results in February.
As The Grocer went to press Big Food Group was due to release Christmas sales figures.
Morrisons will follow with its statement on Tuesday, JS on Thursday, and Tesco and Somerfield the following week.
TNS data for Christmas will be published on Tuesday. But the last data released, covering the 12 weeks to December 5, showed Tesco with its highest-ever market share of 28.7%.
n Tesco is upping the pressure on Asda in their battle to be the lowest-priced chain. Asda was cheapest overall in the past six months of our pricing survey, but Tesco has been closing the gap. This week, as it announced £80m of price cuts, Tesco was the cheapest in our survey.
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