Grocery price inflation in the UK fell by 0.1 percentage points to 14.6% in the 12 weeks to 27 November, the first dip the rate has experienced for 21 months, new data from Kantar showed.
At the same time, take-home grocery sales rose by 5.9% in the period, the fastest level of growth since March 2021.
“As we move into the busiest time of the year for supermarkets, there are signs that the pace of grocery price inflation is easing off slightly," commented Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar.
"Grocery inflation still has a long way to come down though and based on the current rate, shoppers will have to spend an extra £60 (€69.78) in December to buy the same items as last year."
Kantar added that December looks like being the 'biggest ever' for take-home grocery sales, hitting the £12 billion (€13.96 billion) mark for the first time, while Friday 23 December is expected to be the busiest day for pre-Christmas shopping.
Private-Label Products
Shoppers also continue to seek out own-brand products in order to save money, with private-label sales rising 11.7% year-on-year in the 12-week period.
"The cheapest value own label lines have soared by 46.3%, but people still want to find room for treats at this time of year and this is driving growth at the other end of the spectrum too," McKevitt added. "Premium own label sales are up by 6.1% to £461 million in November.”
He added that the World Cup has had limited impact on supermarket sales, however – while take-home beer sales rose slightly during the first week of the competition, this was largely due to increased prices.
Supermarket Performance
In terms of the performance of the UK's largest supermarket chains, discounters Aldi and Lidl continue to be the pace setters, with Aldi seeing its sales rise 24.4% to put it on 9.3% market share, and Lidl's sales rising 22.0% to put the discounter on a new record high of 7.4%.
An additional 1.5 million households shopped with Aldi compared with 2021, Kantar noted.
In terms of the UK's biggest grocers, Asda’s sales grew ahead of the sector, up by 6.1%, keeping its share steady at 14.0%. Tesco’s market share is at 27.2% as its sales rose by 3.9%. The second largest retailer, Sainsbury’s, pushed up sales by 4.3% this period.
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
