Improved trading across Sainsbury's seven stores in Northern Ireland during Christmas and the new year helped boost the British supermarket giant's latest trading figures.

Sainsbury, the second-largest food retailer in the United Kingdom - but one of the smaller supermarket groups in the North - yesterday reported like-for-like sales growth of 6.4 per cent for the Christmas/new year period. Total sales, excluding petrol, grew by 7.4 per cent. Tesco is by far the market leader among the British multiples in Northern Ireland with 36 stores, while Safeway has 12.

Although industry analysts expect Sainsbury to concentrate on expanding its market in Britain, the group is committed to developing a new outlet on the outskirts of Belfast in a new retail park.

Sir Peter Davis, the company's chief executive, said the latest results showed Sainsbury had made a "significant improvement" on last year's trading figures. "We're very encouraged by these results, which give us confidence that we are on track to fulfil the targets we have set ourselves this year and to deliver a sustainable recovery of the business," said Sir Peter. The group is currently implementing a cost savings programme, which it hopes will save it £150 million sterling (€243 million) in the current financial year.

It is also installing new systems and supply chain process. Sir Peter believes this is a key driver for its increased sales figures during the festive season.

"Improved planning, better systems and the hard work of our colleagues delivered consistently high availability nationwide.

"Record volumes were delivered into stores on peak days over the festive period, allowing us to keep customers well supplied throughout," he said.