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Tough times need tough benchmarks

Underneath the hype, the Christmas announcements by the major grocers demonstrate tough trading conditions, with Tesco saying that like-for-like sales in the UK were up by just 0.6 per cent. The analysts will be having this in negative territory in no time.

The impact of Tesco's investment in new space is a 3.6 per cent increase in sales yet the Kantar Worldpanel figures show its market share remains unchanged at 30.5 per cent. The two sets of figures are not strictly aligned but local retailers can see the picture.

Across at Sainsbury, which is doing well, the Kantar Worldpanel figures show it adding 0.3 per cent of market share to 16.6 per cent, just behind Asda on 16.8 per cent (which lost a 10th of a basis point). Sainsbury reported like-for-like sales growth of 3.6 per cent but City analysts cut this down to almost zero after stripping out new space, VAT and food price inflation.

The Tesco press release highlighted "Steady UK Performance" and Sainsbury trumpeted a "record Christmas performance". Earlier Morrisons had said that around 40 per cent of sales were on promotion and the average family was having to spend £10 a week more in petrol costs.
 
The Kantar Worldpanel figures show that independents grew sales fractionally behind the multiples but Ed Garner noted that the supermarkets' baskets were filled with DVDs, toys and books. Grocery inflation remains at around 3 per cent, his data shows.
 
To benchmark your sales, add up what you sold in the final quarter of 2009 and add 3 per cent. Then compare this with what you sold in the final quarter of 2010. If you have a positive number, then you are doing very well. Remember to tell your suppliers you are doing well and keep it up.

Comments

  1. The Village Postmaster13 January 2011 at 18:42

    Good post. You explain the calculation in simple terms to show volume sales growth or other wise.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown19 January 2011 at 14:13

    Thanks Steve, I see that the Times is giving the Tesco c-stores a year-on-year figure of plus 5 per cent. But I am sure that was not a like-for-like. Talking to a business agent last night, he said trading had been tough all year. Easter, Christmas, Mother's Day and increasingly Hallowe'en are where they are focused, with Hallowe'en said to be the biggest opportunity.

    ReplyDelete

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