Sainsbury’s has announced that it enjoyed its best ever Christmas period, boasting strong performance and healthy increases in sales during the third quarter of its financial year.

The supermarket reported that total sales for the three months ended January 3rd had risen by 4.8 per cent, or 5.3 per cent excluding fuel, while Like-for-like sales rose by 3.9 per cent. Customer numbers also continued to grow, with 22.6 million served in the week up to Christmas.

In the company’s trading statement, Sainsbury’s chief executive Justin King highlighted non-food as one of the key factors to the retailer’s success. He said:

“Our non-food ranges continued to show good growth over the quarter. We had a strong non-food Christmas range and held a number of promotional events in the led up to Christmas.

“Sainsbury’s good trading performance has continued over the past 13 weeks resulting in life-for-like sales growth, excluding fuel, of 4.5 per cent, with our best ever Christmas performance completing a good overall third quarter.

“Customer transactions continued to grow over the quarter and now exceed 18 million a week with 22.6 million transaction in the seven days before Christmas. Product availability was strong and we had a great range of quality products and market-leading promotional offers.”

King announced December 23rd was the company’s busiest trading day of the period, and Sainsbury’s achieved its highest ever trading performances on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.