Supermarket sales slow as inflation falls

Overall take-home grocery sales increased by 6.5% in the four weeks to 6 August 2023, down from 10.4% last month, as grocery price inflation fell by 2.2 percentage points to 12.7%, according to the latest results from Kantar.

Kantar revealed that the prices of some staples like milk have edged down compared with earlier in 2023 – shoppers paid £1.50 for four pints last month, down from £1.69 in March. It also said own-label goods remained popular in the latest four week period, with sales up by 9.7%, while branded products rose by 6.4%.

Both Tesco and Sainsbury’s outperformed the market this month, fuelled by sales growth of 9.5% and 9.3% respectively over the 12 weeks to 6 August. Tesco boosted its market share to 27.0%, from 26.9% a year ago, and Sainsbury’s held firm year on year at 14.8%.

Meanwhile, Asda pushed its sales up by 7.7% this month and now accounts for 13.7% of the market, while Morrisons has an 8.7% share as sales grew 2.3% compared with last year.

Aldi was the fastest growing retailer for the fourth month in a row, with sales increasing by 21.2% versus 2022. The discounter now has a market share of 10.2%, a rise of 1.1 percentage points year on year. Lidl’s sales rose by 19.8% and the retailer now holds 7.7% of the market.

Sales at Waitrose and Co-op rose by 4.4% and 3.4%, giving the retailers market shares of 4.4% and 6.1%. Frozen food specialist Iceland saw sales increase by 6.7% to take a 2.3% share, while Ocado’s share now stands at 1.7% as spending at the online-only retailer grew by 1.4%.

Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said: “It was a better month for Barbie than barbecues this July as the rain put a spanner in the works for many consumers’ outdoor plans – a stark comparison to last year when we experienced the hottest day on record. Volume sales of ice creams were down by 30%, while soft drinks sales were nearly a fifth lower than 12 months ago. Halloumi, a new staple of the British summer menu with shopper numbers growing by 218% since a decade ago, was also down by 27%.

“Instead of our usual summer fare, it seems we’ve been turning to more traditional winter warmers. The amount of soup bought has gone up by 16% year on year, while roasting joints have grown by 5%. Cooler temperatures and a wetter than average month may have also put people off from venturing to the shops. Footfall was down for the first time in 18 months with people making 320,000 fewer trips to physical supermarkets than a year ago.”