Eurovison boosts Waitrose's profits thanks to sales of meatballs and Danish pastries

If you’re going to stay in for an evening of cheesy pop, camp presenters and political voting à la Eurovision, you may as well munch on the continent’s finest cuisine.

That’s ready meals of chicken kiev and meatballs, with Danish pastries for dessert, according to the latest figures from Waitrose. It saw sales of Danish pastries rise 17.5 per cent, meatballs by 31 per cent and chicken kievs by 45 per cent in the Eurovision week to 18 May. Overall revenues through Waitrose’s tills rose 9.4 per cent to £115.3 million, excluding sales at its petrol stations.

The supermarket said the rise was because more Britons stayed in — not just for Eurovision, won by Denmark’s Emmelie de Forest, pictured, but also for the final day of the Premier League. Sales of frozen pizza were up 13 per cent in the week while speciality beer rose by 35 per cent.

The “Chelsea bounce” due to the Flower Show taking place this week put flower sales up 21 per cent. At sister department store JohnLewis, the tills rang up 8.8 per cent more than the same week last year at £64.7 million. But the chain admitted that its furniture and homes division was “struggling to match the additional trade generated last year for the Jubilee and Olympic Games”. Overall sales at John Lewis and Waitrose were 7.7 per cent stronger in the week at £180.3 million.