Widely touted as the hottest summer on record, the latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel, published for the 12 weeks to 9 September, show it has been an indulgent one for consumers. Spanning the World Cup kick off in June through to the August bank holiday and beyond, the figures show consumers spent GBP74 million more on ice cream, while the overall market grew by 3.8%.
“The warm summer has been kind to the supermarkets’ convenience format stores as consumers shopped locally for drinks and barbecue supplies, collectively growing sales by 7.6% compared to last year. Co-op was a particular beneficiary and increased sales by 8.5%, its fastest rate since 2011. Tesco Express also benefited from shoppers staying close to home and performed especially well, contributing to total sales for Tesco rising 1.9%,” Kantar said.
At Iceland, sales were up by 6.0% supported by its ‘7 Day Deals’ – its core frozen lines did grow, but it was ambient and chilled products which were the best performing for the retailer. Online specialist Ocado increased sales by 7.9%, for a 1.2% share of the grocery market.
In the overall market, promotional sales fell and accounted for 32.4% of total grocery sales – the lowest level since June 2009. Retailers are looking to offer consistently lower prices on everyday items rather than one-off deals and they have all reduced promotions as a result, states the report. That being said, consumers may not feel like they have more money in their pockets – grocery inflation has now reached 2.0%, adding £1.64 to each household’s weekly shopping bill. At the current rate, these price increases add up to an extra £85 per home annually.
