Sainsbury’s claims big entertainment growth

A bumper Christmas that saw non-food sales grow at three times the rate as groceries has lead Sainsbury’s to declare that it is one of the fastest entertainment retailers”.

The supermarket reported record Q3 sales for the three months ending January 14th 2011, with total year-on-year growth of six per cent excluding fuel. Like-for-like sales were up by 3.6 per cent. In total 24.5m transactions were processed in the seven days up to and including Christmas eve.

"We are seeing strong growth rates in home and electrical and are now one of the fastest growing entertainment retailers," a trading statement read.

"For example, in its launch week, we sold one in every three copies of Shrek 4 bought in shops. The Sainsbury’s Winter Cookbook, our first for ten years, was our third biggest selling cook book."

The retailer added that it hopes to create 20,000 new jobs over the next three years.

Our strategy of providing universal customer appeal through great food at fair prices has helped Sainsbury’s to deliver its best-ever Christmas resulting in like-for-like sales growth for the quarter, excluding fuel, of 3.6 per cent," chief exec Justin king added.

"We are delighted that we delivered a record Christmas performance and have grown market share over the quarter, up 0.3 per cent to 16.6 per cent."