Christmas bonus for supermarket groups as promotions prove a hit

Scunthorpe-based Nisa-Today's, Britain's biggest buying group for independent retailers, said sales increased by 17 per cent in December, while sales at York-based Costcutter rose by 9.7 per cent in the four weeks to Christmas.

Alcohol promotions helped to boost sales at both companies.

John Sharpe, managing director of central distribution trading and logistics at Nisa-Today's, said: "To help achieve these fantastic results, we made an investment in price to help members. The results show the effect of the promotional activities, which we ran throughout December for our members."

Jamie Davison, Costcutter's sales and development director, added: "Christmas sales for Costcutter have continued the upward trend seen throughout the year.

"We've supported retailers in our group by offering a fantastic range of promotional offers and also some aggressive seasonal stunted promotions aimed at giving independents the tools to attract customers and drive footfall."

He added: "All in all, it's been a successful year for us and our retailers, topped off by a bumper Christmas. We have certainly benefited from a change in consumer habits with a rise in the trend of the thrifty local shopper visiting little and often to avoid waste.

"We will be looking to continue this trend in 2010 and as ever the focal point of our activity will be advertising and aggressive promotional consumer offers, driving shoppers into store."

The Christmas trading figures come against a backdrop of double digit growth for the groups.

Between April and December, Nisa Today's achieved a 1bn turnover in nine months, a rise of 12.9 per cent on the previous year.

In August, it rejected a 51m takeover approach from Liverpool-based Bibby Line Group. It also revealed that it plans to reach 2bn turnover by the middle of the decade as it becomes a "safe harbour" for Britain's small independent retailers.

Turnover at Costcutter, which has almost 1,600 outlets in its franchise network, grew by 10 per cent to 324m between May and October.

Managing director Nick Ivel said that 120 stores across the UK moved to the Costcutter brand in the six months to the end of October and net store numbers, allowing for store closures and those that have departed the group, is up by 44.

He said: "Brand awareness is a big thing for us and we have worked very hard for the last year to promote ourselves.

"The weather has also boosted sales recently because people have not been able to go very far."

However, he said that some Costcutter stores, which had relied on their overdrafts, had closed down during the recession.

"We rarely lose a store to another group but those who relied on overdrafts have had problems," he said.

"However, we are starting to come out of that and retailers are now spending money on upgrading their stores.

"We have got a lot of pending stores for this year so we have a healthy order book and we are always on the look-out for acquisitions.

"It could be an interesting year for Costcutter."

In addition, the company is planning to launch a TV campaign to coincide with the World Cup.

"We will look at every aspect of our business to ensure that we stay as the number one group. This year has been exceptional and we have really outperformed but we will build on that in 2010.

"I expect sales to continue to increase, although I doubt it will be at the same rate. I will be hoping for five per cent growth."