Booths Supermarket celebrates record Christmas week sales - these are the traditional items people bought

Booths supermarket has just had its best Christmas week, ever.

The family-owned independent Northern food and drink retailer saw its Christmas Week sales up 8.3 per cent on last year - underpinned by solid sales growth of 6.3 per cent in the 12 weeks before Christmas. The business has also delivered a strong performance with like-for-like retail sales increasing 8.7 per cent in the key three-week trading period ending on January 6. 

This is what the upmarket 1847 cafe looks like in Booths' Hesketh Bank store

The year in year growth is credited to increased volume through higher customer numbers in addition to a rise in overall basket spend.     

Nigel Murray, managing director said: “Everyone at Booths, alongside our supplier partners, has contributed to delivering a great Christmas for our customers and this is reflected in a set of strong trading results.  We strive to deliver the very best food and drink for our customers, and we can be extremely proud of what we achieved this year. The quality of our offer was the best yet and as ever was served up with the warmest of Northern welcomes.”

What were pepole buying?

Booths customers enjoyed a very traditional British Christmas, with sales of turkey and poultry up by 10.6 per cent. Christmas bakery lines, an area where Booths combined 'showstoppers' with traditional festive favourites, were up by 21 per cent.

Sales of traditional Booths mince pies saw sales rise by 16 per cent, sales of smoked salmon increased by 34 per cent and Booths pigs in blanket sales rose by 9.7 per cent.  English wines continue to find favour with customers,  with sales of E.H. Booth & Co. Ltd. English Sparkling Wine up 46 per cent and sales of E.H. Booth & Co. Ltd. Prosecco increased by 20 per cent.  

And it wasn’t just food for the big day that found favour; customers enjoyed shopping and eating at Booths in the run up to Christmas.  Sales of the Festive Christmas Baguette - a hot turkey, stuffing and cranberry sandwich - rose by 28 per cent.  Overall café sales at Booths rose 37 per cent, supported by their upmarket Café 1847 concept which launched in two stores last year.