Asda ‘holds its nerve’ over Christmas trading

Supermarket group Asda today said it had enjoyed a good performance over the key festive season, with a record 4.8 million customers passing through its stores on 23 December.

The grocer, owned by US retail giant Wal-Mart, also said this year saw its biggest ever online Christmas, with daily home shopping sales on 21 and 22 December exceeding £5m.

Asda, which is battling against Sainsbury’s to take the number two slot behind market leader Tesco, said: “Our strategy was to focus on gimmick-free, simple everyday low price transparency for our customers and to hold our nerve when it came to the sales.

“This was against the backdrop of many other retailers vouchering heavily and starting their sales early, and resulted in us seeing record footfall over the Christmas period.”

Sainsbury’s is due to report its third-quarter sales on Wednesday, while Tesco will give a festive trading update on Thursday.