Take-home sales at grocery stores in the United Kingdom rose by 2.5% over the four weeks through December 1, as shoppers prepare for Christmas, according to the latest data from Kantar reported by Fraser McKevitt, its Worldpanel Division’s head of retail consumer insight. Supermarket sales are expected to continue growing, exceeding £13 billion over the four weeks of December for the first time ever.
“Many of us take the chance to treat ourselves at this time of year, and retailers are rolling out seasonal product lines to help us celebrate in style,” said McKevitt. “The proportion of spending on premium own label products reached 5% over the latest four weeks and we expect it to climb even higher in December to nearly 7%.”
The cost of an average Christmas dinner for four has risen to £32.57, up by 6.5%, largely driven by the price of turkey and Christmas vegetable staples, reported McKevitt.
“Wider grocery price inflation remains relatively stable at 2.6%, with grocers prioritizing low pricing over multi buys,” stated McKevitt. “Sales on promotion reached 30% in November, the highest since Christmas last year. It’s retailer price cuts, often accessed through loyalty cards, that are really driving this. While multi buy promotions have stayed flat, spending on price cut offers has grown by 14%, worth £355 million more than last year. Shoppers are grabbing the chance to spend that little bit more than usual on Christmas specials.”
Tesco, the UK’s largest food retailer, scored its highest market share since December 2017 at 28.1%, a rise of 27.4% over the same period in 2023. The grocery chain’s revenues grew by 5.2%. Sainsbury’s market share rose by 0.3 percentage points to 15.9%, as sales increased 4.7% over last year. Britain’s two biggest grocers now have a combined market share of 44%.
“The number of different retailers we visit in the run-up to Christmas is higher than at other times during the year, including wider high street brands like M&S,” noted McDevitt. “Just under one in three households, at 32%, bought food, drink and other groceries to have at home from M&S during the 12 weeks to 1 December and looking at grocery sales alone, spending at M&S rose by 10.4%.”
Additional analysis from Kantar, reported by McDevit, included the following insights:
• Online retailer Ocado boosted sales by 8.7% over the period, achieving a 1.8% share of the market. It outpaced the total online market which grew by 3.6%, with shoppers spending £4.2 billion on the channel overall across the 12 weeks.
• Lidl was the fastest growing bricks-and-mortar grocer, with sales up by 6.6%. Its share climbed 0.3 percentage points to 7.7%. The retailer’s footfall stepped up by nearly 10% in comparison with a year ago.
• Spending at Morrisons rose by 2.0%, and it now takes 8.6% of the market. Its average transaction value nudged up by 4.8% over the 12 weeks, helped by strong online sales. This was significantly ahead of the average growth in basket spend across the grocers as a whole, which edged 0.7% higher to £24.51 this period.
Waitrose grew slightly ahead of the market, with spending increasing by 2.6%. It maintains a 4.4% share. Spending at Aldi grew by 2.1%, and the retailer retained 10.3% of the market. Iceland also held its share of 2.2%, and Co-op’s portion of the market is now 5.5%. Asda has a 12.3% market share.
