UK grocery market sees ‘modest’ growth despite wet start to summer
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The latest grocery market share figures, published by research, data and insight consultancy company Kantar, show supermarket sales grew by 1.4% year-on-year during the 12 weeks to 16 June 2019.
According to the firm, the “modest” level of current growth has been the result of a wet start to the summer, with last year’s heatwave and the run up to the men’s FIFA World Cup making 2018 a “difficult year to top”.
However, it added the results mark a “new milestone” for the sector, which is celebrating a three-year trajectory of continuous growth dating back to July 2016.
Aldi attracted an additional 883,000 shoppers through its doors during the period, with sales up 9.3%. Kantar said this helped the retailer to grow its market share to 7.9%, up by 0.5 percentage points on one year ago.
Sainsbury’s saw its sales fall by 0.6% in the latest 12 weeks, halving the rate of decline it registered last month. Kantar the drop was due to an increase in the number of affluent consumers visiting the retailer, with ‘AB’ shoppers increasing spend by 2% this period.
Asda’s sales also fell by 0.1%; though Kantar said it will be buoyed by the performance of its online arm, which saw double-digit growth of 10%. Waitrose’s share this period slipped back by 0.1 percentage points to 5%, with sales remaining flat compared with a year ago.
Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said: “The modest level of current growth is thanks in no small part to the wet start to the summer, with last year’s heatwave and the run up to the men’s FIFA World Cup making 2018 a difficult year to top.
“These challenges are reflected in typical summer categories: in the past four weeks sales of ice cream were £15m lower than this time last year, while beer is down £17m and burgers £6m.”
He added: “However, even unseasonable clouds have a silver lining. Shoppers sought refuge from the cooler weather and spent more on traditional comfort foods, with fresh and tinned soup sales up by 8% and 16% respectively.”
