Waitrose says that it has recorded its most successful Christmas ever, with total branch sales for the 12 trading days ending December 31st up 6.5% on last year and 4.1% on a like for like basis.
Sales on Monday 23 December were £51m - the highest ever taken by the business in a single day with an average of 22,000 items going through checkouts every minute. For the five week period ending on Christmas Eve, total sales were £736m - up 5.4% on the equivalent period last year and 3.1% on a like for like basis. Online grocery sales were up 33.4% for the five-week period.

Sainsbury's has also enjoyed its best Christmas ever, with record trading in the seven days before and more than 28 million transactions. The single busiest day was 23 December which also saw the biggest trading hour with customers spending almost £17m. The Stanway store in Essex took £1m in sales on 23 December. The retailer has reported a 2.5% increase in sales for the third quarter. Like-for-like sales for the three-month period were flat.

Asda saw a surge in sales in the run up to Christmas, with a record 4.8 million customers through the doors of its 573 UK stores on 23 December. It recorded online sales of more than £5m on 21 and 22 December. Sales through its mobile app increased by more than 200% year-on-year and 28% of its home grocery orders were made via its smartphone app in December. The company is due to report its trading figures for the fourth quarter on 20 February.