Sainsbury’s has faced tough competition from discounters Lidl and Aldi.

Highlights from the results include over 30 million customer transactions during the seven days prior to Christmas, a 2.6 percent improvement on 2014. Like-for-like retail sales were down 0.4 percent in the third quarter (1.8 percent down including fuel sales).

Total retail sales for the third quarter were up 0.8 percent however including fuel they were down 0.7 percent which the company attributed to a highly competitive market.

Mike Coupe, Chief Executive, said:

“We have traded well during the festive period in a highly competitive market. Our stores delivered excellent levels of service and availability and we launched several new seasonal products and range improvements. As a result we have seen our market share grow in the quarter.”

The supermarket chain said it had reduced its levels of vouchering and promotional participation year-on-year, whilst reducing the number of multi-buys in favour of lower regular prices.

In the quarter Sainsbury’s “won seven out of 12 weeks of the Grocer 33 Service & Availability award” they said reflecting their staffs focus on excellent customer service.

Online grocery sales grew by nearly ten per cent with orders up 15 percent. The company achieved a record week in the quarter, delivering over 289,000 online orders.

Coupe also added:

“Given our good performance in this quarter, we now expect our like-for-like sales in the second half of the year to be better than the first. Food deflation and pressures on pricing will ensure that the market remains challenging for the foreseeable future. We will continue to remain competitive on price and our performance this quarter provides further evidence that our strategy is working.”