Booths delivers 'strong' festive trading performance with like-for-like retail sales increasing 8.7 per cent

A spokesman said: “The year on year growth is credited to increased volume through higher customer numbers in addition to a rise in overall basket spend.

“Sales were helped by the Booths Christmas Book of festive food and drink.”

Nigel Murray, Managing Director said: “Everyone at Booths, alongside our supplier partners, has contributed to delivering a great Christmas for our customers and this is reflected in a set of strong trading results.

"We strive to deliver the very best food and drink for our customers, and we can be extremely proud of what we achieved this year.

"The quality of our offer was the best yet and as ever was served up with the warmest of Northern welcomes.”

The spokesman added: “Booths customers enjoyed a very traditional British Christmas, with sales of turkey and poultry up by 10.6 per cent. “Christmas Bakery lines were up by 21 per cent.”

Traditional Booths mince pies saw sales rise by 16 per cent. Sales of smoked salmon increased by 34 per cent and Booths Pigs in Blanket sales rose by 9.7 per cent.

The spokesman added: “English wines continue to find favour with customers, with sales of E.H. Booth & Co. Ltd. English Sparkling Wine up 46 per cent and sales of E.H. Booth & Co. Ltd. Prosecco increased by 20 per cent.

“Customers enjoyed shopping and eating at Booths in the run up to Christmas. Sales of the Festive Christmas Baguette, a hot turkey, stuffing and cranberry feast of a sandwich, rose by 28 per cent. Overall café sales at Booths rose 37 per cent, supported by the Café 1847 concept which launched in two stores last year.”

Last year, Booths revealed it had decided to remove self-service checkouts in the majority of its stores.

The company said it believed staff serving customers delivered a better customer experience.

A spokesman added in November: “We have based this not only on what we feel is the right thing to do but also having received feedback from our customers. We will retain self-checkouts in two of our stores in the Lake District in order to meet the needs of our customers during very busy periods.”