UK grocery inflation edges higher

LONDON: UK shoppers faced increased pressure on their budgets last month after grocery price inflation edged higher, industry data showed on Tuesday.

Market researcher Kantar said annual grocery price inflation was 2.0% in the four weeks to Sept. 29, having been 1.7% in the previous four-week period.

The data showed prices are rising fastest in products such as chilled soft drinks, chocolate confectionery and skin care and are falling fastest in household paper products, dog food and cat food.

Official data published last month showed overall UK inflation stayed at 2.2% in August. Data for September will be published Oct. 16, the last update before the new Labour government’s Oct. 30 budget statement.

Kantar’s data showed UK grocery sales rose 2.0% in value terms over the four week period year-on-year, versus 3.0% in last month’s report.

Over the 12 weeks to Sept. 29 online supermarket Ocado was again the fastest growing grocer with sales up 10% year-on-year, taking its market share to 1.8%.

Industry leader Tesco saw sales growth of 5.2% and its market share rose 60 basis points to hit 28.0%, its largest share since December 2017.

Sales at No. 2 Sainsbury’s rose 5.1% but No. 3 Asda was again the laggard, with its sales down 5.1% and it lost 1.1 percentage points of market share year-on-year.

Kantar said discounters Aldi and Lidl saw sales growth of 1.8% and 8.8% respectively.

Record monthly rainfall in September boosted demand for winter staples, the researcher noted, with sales of hot chocolate and soup up 28% and 10% respectively.

It said Halloween sales had also started well, with pumpkin sales nearly doubling last September’s figure at just under 1 million pounds ($1.3 million).

Separately on Tuesday, survey data from the British Retail Consortium showed shoppers increased their spending moderately in annual terms last month, though ongoing concerns of consumers about the financial outlook kept demand low for big ticket items such as furniture and white goods.

UK supermarkets’ market share and sales growth (%)

Market share Market % change in

12 wks to share 12 sales

Sept. 29 wks to Oct. (yr-on-yr)

2024 1 2023

Tesco 28.0 27.4 5.2

Sainsbury’s 15.2 14.8 5.1

Asda 12.6 13.7 -5.1

Aldi 9.8 9.9 1.8

Morrisons 8.6 8.6 2.8

Lidl 8.1 7.6 8.8

Co-operative 5.9 6.1 -0.9

Waitrose 4.6 4.6 3.6

Iceland 2.2 2.2 4.6

Ocado 1.8 1.7 10.0

Source: Kantar

($1 = 0.7652 pounds)