Lincolnshire Co-op food stores enjoyed a festive boom, with like-for-like sales up 17.7 per cent.
The rise came in the two-week period from December 18 to December 31, with Christmas Eve breaking records for the number of customer visits and sales.
The society says shoppers took advantage of extra dividend and trusted Lincolnshire Co-op to deliver a good range, including an array of locally-sourced products.
In December, it paid out a dividend bonus of £1.6m to its 260,000 members, on top of the £1.9m collected during the year. In that month, members used £1.3m of dividend to paid for their shopping in food stores.
Chief retail officer Mark Finn said: “We’ve had an exceptional festive performance and my thanks go out to every member of our team, from the frontline staff in our stores to those in our warehouses and support offices. It’s their hard work which has made this happen, as well as the support of our customers and members – we worked hard all year to give them great service, availability and value.
“We had a fantastic Christmas range on sale and many customers pre-ordered products, like turkeys, as they trusted us to deliver. Our community-based locations and long opening hours also meant people could conveniently pick up everything they needed to make their celebration special by just popping into their local Lincolnshire Co-op.
“We also paid out our dividend bonus before Christmas and we were pleased to see members treating themselves with dividend this festive season.”
Meanwhile, the society says festive revellers’ number one celebration drink was Prosecco – with six bottles sold for every bottle of Champagne across its 83 stores during the month before Christmas.
