A 0.6 per cent fall in like-for-like sales in the 13 weeks to January 1 was revealed by the Co-operative Group, which blamed severe weather conditions and a tough trading environment for the downturn.


However, while food sales suffered, down 3.2 per cent during the period, it was an entirely different story for non-food, including electricals.


Here, like-for-like sales soared by 12.1 per cent with electricals one of the three categories praised for putting in particularly strong performances – the others were motor and travel.


“The performance of our non-food businesses was very strong overall and, together with the excellent progress made by our financial services business, we are confident that 2010 will have proved to be another record year for The Co-operative Group,” said group chief executive Peter Marks.