UK grocery sales surge at record level after two months of lockdown
UK grocery sales rose 14.3 per cent during the 12 weeks to 17 May, the fastest rate since comparable records began in 1994, as Britons adapted to the national lockdown, data from market researcher Kantar showed today.
The UK has been in lockdown since 23 March though restrictions are being gradually eased.
Of Britain’s big four grocers, industry leader Tesco was the best performer with sales up 12.7 per cent, closely followed by Sainsbury’s with a 12.5 per cent increase. Morrisons’ sales rose 9.8 per cent, while Asda grew sales the least at 6.5 per cent.
The overall star performer was the Co-operative, the No. 6 player, with a sales increase of 30.8 per cent.
Kantar said that in the most recent four week period to 17 May grocery sales growth accelerated to 17.2 per cent year-on-year as the government announced the first stage of easing lockdown restrictions.
In the most recent four weeks, the trend towards fewer, larger shops evident in April continued. Kantar said shoppers visited a supermarket 3.5 times per week on average, meaning 100m fewer trips overall than the same month last year, and increased their spend each trip to £27.41 pounds – nearly 50 per cent more than they did during pre-crisis times.
Separately, data from Nielsen showed online grocery spending jumped to a record level this month as shoppers avoided trips outside where possible.
Online sales accounted for 13 per cent of UK grocery spend in the four weeks to 16 May, a total of £1.2bn in sales, Nielsen data showed.
This is up from seven per cent at the same time last year and 10 per cent share recorded just four weeks previously.
The data shows that 7.9m UK households placed an online grocery order in the four weeks to 16 May, up from 4.8m during the same period last year, with 1.1m of these being new online shoppers in the last month.
The growth of online sales in the last four weeks (+103 per cent) is a significant increase compared to the +6.6 per cent sales growth in bricks and mortar stores.
Nielsen data showed store visits were down -24 per cent in the period, however, spend per visit was once again higher than at Christmas – up 45 per cent compared to this time last year, with an average basket value of £21.60.
Total till sales in the last four weeks were up +13 per cent year-on-year, Nielsen said.
Categories that performed well included beers, wines and spirits (+32 per cent), frozen food (+31 per cent), packaged grocery (+24 per cent), and meat, fish and poultry (+19 per cent), with health, beauty and baby care (-19 per cent) and delicatessens (-12 per cent) recording the biggest declines.
Mike Watkins, Nielsen’s UK head of retailer and business insight, said: “Following over eight weeks in lockdown, UK shoppers are more accustomed to restricted living, and have adapted their grocery shopping habits to match.
“The extreme category growth experienced at the beginning of lockdown has started to ease as consumers become more confident in product availability. Online has been a clear winner over the lockdown period, as shoppers take advantage of retailers’ increased delivery capacity.”
Watkins added: “With social distancing continuing to be a way of life for the foreseeable future, online shopping will continue and shoppers will begin to add more discretionary treats and indulgences back into the weekly shop.
“We’ll also continue to see an increase in basket sizes, as consumers focus on cooking their own meals whilst pubs and restaurants remain closed.
“More meals cooked at home will also boost grocery spend across major categories including frozen, fresh and chilled foods. The warm weather may even increase spend further as shoppers buy additional food and drink items, and households make the move to alfresco dining and treating themselves.”