Blog: Sainsbury's should be looking over its shoulder

Yet its Q3 like-for-likes slowed on the previous quarter, and on the same quarter last year, at up 0.9% excluding petrol.

In the tough climate, most believe Sainsbury’s has delivered a satisfactory performance. And when compared with Morrisons, which reported a 2.5% fall in like-for-like sales in its Christmas period, it is more than satisfactory.

Sainsbury’s was widely expected to have slowed growth, and it says market conditions and tough comparatives are to blame. The resurgence of Tesco must have also had some part to play.

Tesco will report its Christmas trading tomorrow, and it is expected it might edge ahead of Sainsbury’s. However, we should remember it is a different reporting period and as King says, some retailers are reporting just the few weeks where there is guaranteed growth available.

But Tesco is gaining ground. While Sainsbury’s is the only one of the big four to gain market share in the 12 week Kantar figures, Tesco grew its core grocery sales ahead of the rest of the big four in the four weeks to December 23.

Tesco reported a 6.7% rise in food and drink sales in the four weeks, compared with Asda’s 3.7%, Sainsbury’s 3.3% and Morrisons’ fall of 0.6%.

Yes the four week data is volatile but it should not be overlooked. Tesco is gaining momentum and will be giving Sainsbury’s a good run for its money in 2013.