ANALYSIS of Christmas spending has revealed the winners and losers among Britain’s supermarkets.

Overall, supermarkets suffered their slowest growth over the Christmas period since 2015 after a hoped-for post-election spending rush failed to materialise.

Year-on-year sales grew marginally by 0.2 per cent in the 12 weeks to December 29 but, despite retailers taking a record £29.3billion – up £50million on last year – 2019 saw the slowest rate of growth over the Christmas period for four years, analysts Kantar said.

The winners and losers among the supermarkets were as follows:

  • Lidl led the way with sales growth of 10.3 per cent.
  • Aldi saw sales rise by 5.9 per cent.
  • Sainsbury’s sales fell by 0.7 per cent,
  • Tesco sales fell by 1.5 per cent.
  • Asda saw sales fall by 2.2 per cent.
  • Morrisons saw sales fall by 2.9 per cent.

Britain’s fastest-growing grocer overall was the online delivery service Ocado, with sales up 12.5 per cent.

While December 23 was easily the single busiest shopping day of 2019 – and the largest shopping day ever recorded for supermarkets – average household spending over the 12 weeks to December 29 fell by £8 to £1,055.

Sales of Christmas puddings were down by 16 per cent, while seasonal biscuits were 11 per cent lower and turkey sales also fell by one per cent, partly down to a shift from whole birds to smaller and cheaper joints such as crowns as cautious shoppers cut back on traditional and indulgent festive classics.

Sparkling wine sales dipped by eight per cent, but beer and still wine were more popular than 2018, with sales up one and two per cent respectively.