Grocery sales on track for bumper Christmas after reaching record high in November
November was the largest month ever for the UK’s grocery market as out of home socialising was restricted by a second national lockdown, figures show.
Market researcher Kantar said grocery sales rose 11.3 per cent in the 12 months to 29 November and climbed 13.9 per cent year-on-year in the last four weeks.
Last month alone, £10.9bn was spent on groceries in the UK in store and online. The three days before non-essential retail and hospitality closed on 5 November were notably busy, with grocery sales soaring 17 per cent.
“December’s numbers are likely to surpass that again, and we expect spend to be close to £12bn in the month, around £1.5bn more than last year,” said Fraser McEvitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar.
The average household spent a record £4,206 on groceries so far this year, meaning inflationary pressure could result in the need to balance budgets next year. Grocery price inflation is current running at 1.4 per cent.
In a further sign that a move to online shopping is becoming more permanent, Kantar’s figures show more than 6m households shopped at a grocer online this month, the highest ever, with digital platforms accounted for 13.7 per cent of all sales.
Online grocer Ocado saw consumer spend rise a staggering 38.3 per cent to £532m from the same period last year.
Co-op’s growth increased to 9.8 per cent, holding onto market share of 6.3 per cent, while Aldi’s sales were up seven per cent with a 7.7 per cent share of the market.
Budget rival Lidl saw sales increase 13.9 per cent with a 6.2 per cent market share.
Waitrose increased sales by 13.2 per cent, its fastest rate of growth in 15 years, with sales of fresh meat and fresh fish rising by 25 per cent and 16 per cent respectively.
Its market share rose by 0.1 percentage points on last year, and the retailer now accounts for 4.9% of the market.