Blog: Iceland stakes claim to Christmas win

Iceland boss Malcolm Walker claimed a victory in the battle for grocery spend this week as the tussle to compare figures has left the industry confounded.

The frozen food chain’s founder said its Christmas like-for-likes had outgunned the country’s biggest grocers in the periods they had reported. Comparing performances has proved difficult using differing reporting periods.

He said Iceland recorded a 1% rise while Morrisons reported a 2.5% fall in the six weeks to December 30. He claimed Iceland grew 2.3% against Sainsbury’s 0.9% which the latter reported for the 14 weeks to January 5.

Iceland, which trades of its iconic party food ranges at Christmas, recorded a 2.2% uplift in like-for-likes while Tesco reported a 1.8% rise in the six weeks to January 5.

In reality, until Asda unveils its full-year results on February 21 a full picture of how the grocers performed over Christmas cannot be formed. Market data suggests that Aldi, Lidl and Waitrose were the strongest performers at Christmas while Tesco and Sainsbury’s have also laid claim to be the festive winners. Kantar Worldpanel claimed a ‘dead heat’ between Tesco and Sainsbury’s among the big four.

After losing out to shoppers spending vouchers elsewhere in Christmas 2011, Tesco will have been keen to lay claim to Christmas 2012 and an embarrassing leaked email from a Sainsbury’s IR director over an alleged breach of accounting rules evidenced how much Tesco’s claim rankled.

Morrisons ultimately appeared the Christmas loser with worse-than-expected figures due to its limited convenience and online business and against tough comparatives.

Iceland’s strong Christmas, which has seen the retailer partially recover from the poor performance reported at its company conference in October, is interesting in the context of a strong Christmas for online retail when it has no exposure to etail.

Whether claiming a Christmas victory amounts to more than bragging rights remains in question however Tesco boss Philip Clarke’s beloved Liverpool FC would state that a win over archrivals Everton always gives them momentum for the remainder of the season.

Momentum is key in grocery businesses where supply chains are finely tuned and organising shopfloor staff in large hypermarket stores is a military operation. A downward spiral can quickly hit businesses if standards begin to slip, as Co-operative chief executive Steve Murrells admitted last week.

If the data is broken down and a Christmas winner eventually declared it is likely to be well into a calendar year in which the grocers will continue to jostle for position.