Record Christmas sales in UK
2023.01.04 09:07
Record Christmas sales in UK
Budrigannews.com – According to a report released on Wednesday by market researcher Kantar, British grocery sales increased 9.4% to a record 12.8 billion pounds ($15.3 billion) in the four weeks leading up to December 25. However, rather than being driven by increased purchasing, the growth was driven by price inflation.
It said deals estimated by volume, or the sum individuals purchased, fell 1% year-on-year, showing the difficulties customers are looking during a typical cost for many everyday items emergency.
“This story worked out across the conventional Christmas classifications. For instance, “volume purchases barely increased at all” while value sales of mince pies increased by 19%, according to Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar.
According to Kantar, grocery price inflation decreased from 14.6% in November to 14.4% in December, with milk, dog food, and frozen potato products experiencing the fastest price increases.
McKevitt stated, “This is the second month in a row that the price of groceries has fallen, raising hopes that the worst has passed.”
Fresh food prices at UK supermarkets in early December were 15.0% higher than a year earlier, according to separate data published on Wednesday by the British Retail Consortium. This was the largest annual increase since records began at least in 2005.
According to Kantar, supermarket own-label product sales increased by 13.3%, well ahead of a 4.7% increase in branded lines, as consumers continued to trade down.
According to the report, annual visits to supermarkets increased by 5.2%. Although its share of the market decreased by 0.6 percentage points to 11.6%, online grocery sales increased by 4%.
Tesco, the market leader (OTC:), Sainsbury’s and Asda all conveyed strong exhibitions, with deals on a worth premise up 6.0%, 6.2% and 6.4% separately over the 12 weeks to Dec. 25.
In morning trading, Tesco shares were up 1.9%, while Sainsbury’s shares were up 2.6%.
Aldi UK and Lidl GB, both owned by Germany, continued to be the fastest-growing chains, with growth rates of 27.0 percent and 23.9 percent, respectively.
With sales declines of 2.9% and 0.7%, Waitrose and Morrisons were the losers.
Aldi itself reported a 26% rise in December sales on Tuesday.
More Inflation in Europe declining especially in France
Next week, Tesco and Sainsbury’s are scheduled to provide an update on Christmas sales.
Inflation in the UK is 10.7% overall, and in 2023, consumers could be squeezed even more by higher taxes, higher mortgage rates, and reduced government support for household energy bills.
The growth in sales and market share of UK supermarkets
Market share Market share % change in
12 wks to 12 wks to sales
Dec. 25 2022 Dec. 26 2021 (yr-on-yr)
Tesco 27.5 27.9 6.0
Sainsbury’s 15.5 15.7 6.2
Asda 14.0 14.2 6.4
Aldi 9.1 7.7 27.0
Morrisons 9.1 10.1 -2.9
Lidl 7.2 6.3 23.9
Co-operative 5.6 5.8 4.3
Waitrose 4.7 5.1 -0.7
Iceland 2.5 2.4 10.2
Ocado (LON:) 1.7 1.7 8.2
