Warm weather and football fever boosts supermarket sales

The UK groceries’ market share has increased at its fastest rate this year as a result of football fever and sunny weather, new figures show.

A report from consultancy Kantar Worldpanel revealed supermarket sales grew 3.6%, with sales of firelighters (47%) and fresh burgers (30%) increasing as well.

The data also showed sun care products, which increased  by 38%, and painkillers, picked up by nearly a third of all households over last month, were in demand. Asda sales jumped to 3.7%, hitting its strongest growth in more than five years and best performing of the ‘big four’ for the first time since December 2014.

Tesco’s market share fell back to 27.6% and Sainsbury’s market share also declined to 15.6%. Both grocers had these results despite overall and sales growth of 2.3% and 0.8%, respectively. Iceland and Ocado sales grew by 4.5% and 8.5%, while Waitrose dropped market share to 5%.

Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel, said: “England may not have won the World Cup – but its journey to the semi-finals not only helped to kickstart the summer, but supermarket sales to boot. Over the past month, football-frenzied customers visited supermarkets an extra 13 million times as they hurried to stock up on World Cup-viewing essentials, with alcohol in particular the stand-out winner.  

“Christmas and Easter aside, the week that the England football team played both Colombia and Sweden saw more spent on alcohol than ever before – a colossal £287 million. Over the past 12 weeks Co-op experienced growth of 6.4% – its highest recorded since October 2011 – as shoppers’ desire to maximise the sunshine encouraged them to shop more locally.

“The past month in particular saw a boost to the retailer’s popularity, with shoppers returning to Co-op stores on average a record 10.1 times.”