Supermarkets enjoy record Christmas sales

Asda has increased the number of shoppers coming through the door

The latest grocery market share figures from Kantar Worldpanel show the fastest recorded growth since June 2014.

Tesco and Morrisons enjoyed positive sales increases, although Sainsbury's and Asda were in negative territory. However Asda nearly halved the rate of its decline.

Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel, said: "Asda has increased the number of shoppers coming through the door.

"They are not there yet, but that's the best performance in a long time."

During the 12 weeks to January 1, Tesco's saw a 1.3 per cent sales increase helped by improvements to its fresh food range. Morrisons increased total sales by 1.2 per cent.

"This is the first time we've seen growth at Morrisons for some time," said Mr McKevitt.

"The turnaround has been impressive and they have fixed some of the basics.

"They did well with fresh food and the 'Best' range is growing incredibly strongly at 40 per cent. Morrisons can look forward to a much better 2017."

Sainsbury's saw a marginal sales decline of 0.1 per cent while enjoying a record Christmas online and Asda saw sales fall by 2.4 per cent.

The Kantar data showed that prices are rising across the UK's supermarkets for the first time since 2014.

Like-for-like prices increased by 0.2 percentage points bringing a return to inflation after 28 months of deflation in the market.

The turnaround follows months of warnings from the sector that prices would have to go up as a result of the weaker pound.

UK supermarkets enjoyed a record Christmas with sales up by 1.8 per cent.

More than half the population braved a grocery store on Friday December 23.

The typical household spend for December reached £365 this year - £52 more than the average month.

"Year-on-year market growth has been helped by comparisons to a weaker Christmas in 2015, but sales were also buoyed by strong consumer appetite for festive celebration after a turbulent year," said Mr McKevitt.

He added: "The long-anticipated return to inflation suggests that the speed of growth in the overall market will continue to hasten in 2017, and both consumers and retailers will be looking at ways to avoid increasing the cost of the weekly shop."