Car sales in China have fallen for the first time in 20 years. The country, which is the world’s biggest car market, reported a 6% fall on Wednesday to 22.7 million units over the last year. Cui Dongshu, the secretary general of the China Passenger Car Association, said on Wednesday: “Pressure on automakers is mounting.” “Declining car sales may speed up the process of squeezing out the incompetent players and we may see some of them exit the market next year,” he said. The country’s economy has been slowing, having a knock-on effect on car manufacturers around the world. Ford (NYSE: F), Volkswagen (ETR: VOW3), Jaguar Land Rover and General Motors (NYSE: GM) are among the car manufacturers that have reported a fall in sale over the past few months in China. Ford’s vehicle sales fell 38% in June 2018, the group’s worst-ever first half. The news comes following warnings from Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) over sales would be hit by slowing iPhone demand in the country.    

Sainsbury’s (LON:SBRY) sales fell in the run-up to Christmas, amid fierce competition among supermarkets. The UK’s second-largest supermarket blamed ‘cautious customers’ for the 1.1% fall in like-for-like sales during the 15 weeks to 5 January. Meanwhile, Sainsbury’s said that grocery sales fare slightly better, reporting a growth of 0.4% during the third quarter. Mike Coupe, chief executive of Sainsbury’s, commented: “Sales declined in the quarter due to cautious customer spending and our decision to reduce promotional activity across Black Friday. Clothing performed well, with strong full price sales growth in a tough market. “Retail markets are highly competitive and very promotional and the consumer outlook continues to be uncertain.” Some of the nation’s most well-known supermarkets are continuing to struggle amid greater competition from low-cost competitors such as Lidl and Aldi. Just this week, Morrisons revealed its figures for the run-up to Christmas, revealing a sharp slowdown in performance. Meanwhile, sales at Waitrose didn’t fare much better, falling 1.7% in the 12 weeks to December 30. According to the latest figures, both grocery retailers enjoyed strong sales over the festive period, continuing to gain market share. In the 12 weeks to 30 December, Aldi and Lidl performed strongly, with its market share growing by 10.4% and 9.4% respectively. The UK’s leading supermarket, Tesco (LON:TSCO), is set to report on Thursday. Shares in Sainsbury’s are currently down -0.79% as of 08:54AM (GMT).  

Aldi and Lidl have both reported strong sales figures over the Christmas, both gaining supermarket share. The discounters were visited by two-thirds of households in the festive season as shoppers are becoming increasingly aware of purse strings. In the 12 weeks to 30 December, the major supermarkets lost market share whilst sales at Aldi and Lidl continued to perform strongly, growing by 10.4% and 9.4% respectively. Fraser McKevitt, who is the head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said: “The discounters have continued to make their mark over Christmas: two-thirds of all households shopped at either Aldi or Lidl over the 12-week period culminating in a highest-ever combined Christmas market share of 12.8%” Giles Hurley, the Aldi UK chief executive, said on the strong sales: “Our Christmas range was the largest and most innovative yet and caught the imagination of our customers, who visited our stores in record numbers.” “Although we saw strong growth across all key categories, the standout performance was in our Specially Selected brand where shoppers treated themselves to premium products for a fraction of the price they would have paid elsewhere for similar quality products.” In other supermarket news, Morrisons reported Christmas sales to be up by 4%. Despite the rise in sales, shares in the company fell in early trading. “Morrisons performed well, sustaining a strong offer and trading the business hard for customers. We were again more competitive, with the price of our basket of key Christmas items the same as last year,” said the company. Shares in Morrisons (LON: MRW) are currently trading down -3.42% at 212,14 (1122GMT).

Greene King has announced on Tuesday that it remains confident in its 2019 outlook. Indeed, the company continues to trade ahead of market expectations following the Christmas festivities. For the 36 weeks to 06 January, like-for-like sales were up 3.2% following strong trading over the Christmas period. Like-for-like sales in the last two weeks alone, covering Christmas and the New Year, were up 10.9%.

Greene King achieved record Christmas day sales of £7.7 million.

All sales categories saw like-for-like sales growth over the six weeks covering the Christmas period. The company’s branded Local Pubs drove strong drink sales growth. Greene King was founded in 1799 and has its headquarters in Suffolk. It currently employs roughly 39,000 people across its main trading businesses. The company remains confident of its outlook for the rest of the 2019 financial year, despite the highly reported Brexit uncertainty. “While the ongoing uncertainty around Brexit may still have an impact on consumer confidence and spending during the year, we remain confident of our outlook for the financial year. We remain focused on our strategic priorities of driving profitable sales growth, developing a more streamlined and efficient organisation, and further strengthening and improving the flexibility of our capital structure to deliver long-term value for our shareholders,” Greene King commented. Greene King’s trading update is a strikingly contrast compares to last year’s Christmas results, which were highly impacted by the snowy British weather. The company has said it remains in line to dispose 100 to 110 pubs and limit cost inflation between £10 million-£20 million in 2019. Earlier this year, Greene King announced that it sold half a million extra pints over England’s World Cup match against Panama. England’s World Cup success was a huge drive in sales over the summer for the company. Indeed, following one of Britain’s hottest summers and England’s World Cup performance, the company was the biggest gainer in the FTSE 350 at the start of September. At 10:11 GMT today, shares in Greene King plc (LON:GNK) were trading at +3.54%.

Premium British lifestyle brand, Joules, has announced a strong trading performance of its retail business over the Christmas period. The fashion retailer expects to maintain its profit outlook following the festivities. Retail sales increased by 11.7% compared to the prior year. According to Joules, this performance “reflected growth across all of the brand’s product categories.” Online and E-commerce represent almost half of total retail sales over Christmas – the seven-week period to 6 January 2019. This strong online performance was enhanced by a good performance through the company’s digital channels.

Joules is confident that it will achieve full year 2018 PBT in line with expectations.

Chief Executive Officer, Colin Porter, commented on the results: “I am pleased to update on a continued strong retail performance for Joules through the important festive trading period, which represents an improvement from the retail sales growth in the first half of the year2. This good growth was achieved despite the ongoing backdrop of challenging sector trading conditions. “The Group’s performance was again underpinned by the strength of the Joules brand, our growing and loyal customer base, and the flexibility of our ‘total retail’ model which continues to enable Joules to adapt to changing customer shopping behaviours.” Several retailers have begun to announce their financial results over the Christmas period. Not all have posted strong results like Joules. Footwear retailer, Footasylum, warned that its adjusted earnings will lean towards the lower end of analyst expectations. However, on Monday, both Selfridges and budget supermarket Aldi revealed record breaking results over the festive shopping period. Elsewhere in the supermarket sector, Morrisons reported a steady sales growth over Christmas. The mixed results are an indicator of the current economic uncertainty. What remains apparent is that not all retailers have struggled over the Christmas period. So far, Selfridges, Aldi and Joules are just a few examples of strong performance over Christmas, contrasting the results of Footasylum. For a better understanding of the retail sector over Christmas, however, we must wait and see what additional results are revealed, allowing us to see the bigger picture. At 09:33 GMT today, shares in Joules Ltd (LON:JOUL) were trading at +5.11%.