Independents beat Tesco over Christmas

Independents finished third in a league table of retailers performance over the Christmas period last year, according to data from Nielsen.

David Glennon, retail services manager at Nielsen, took the eight-week performance of the 'independents' sector as a whole from Nielsen ScanTrack and said growth was greater than both Sainsburys and Tesco.

Glennon said: "After two to three years of steadying the ship and reducing the decline independents have at last shown real growth in 2007, and this is even more encouraging given the current tough retail conditions. And given the investment and competition going on in convenience this should give us a boost for the year ahead."

He said that the fresh veg, milk, bread and morning goods categories had performed well last year and energy and adult drinks had managed a good performance despite the weather. "In BWS the independent sector has recovered its position and is not far behind the total market and incredibly in tobacco and soft drinks, two key categories in the independent sector, we are out-performing the total market growth."