New U.K. grocery market share figures issued by Kantar Worldpanel for the 12 weeks ending 1 January 2017, show the fastest recorded retail growth since June 2014, thanks to an additional consumer spend of GBP 480 million (USD 590.6 million, EUR 552.9 million) increasing total supermarket sales by 1.8 percent.
Year-on-year market growth has been helped by comparisons to a weaker Christmas in 2015, but sales were also buoyed by strong consumer appetite for festive celebration after a turbulent year, said Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel.
The typical household spend for December 2016 reached GBP 365 (USD 449.1 million, EUR 420.4 million), which was GBP 52 (USD 64, EUR 60) more than the average month.
“Thanks to continued investment in premium own label brands across the major retailers in 2016, such products finished the year with record 12 week sales of almost one billion pounds. Top tier lines including own label fresh and smoked fish, cooked meats such as ham, and wine performed particularly well,” said McKevitt.
After 28 months of deflation in the market, like-for-like grocery prices have increased by 0.2 percentage points to bring a return to inflation, which suggests that the speed of growth in the overall U.K. market will continue to hasten in 2017, and both consumers and retailers will be looking at ways to avoid increasing the cost of the weekly shop, he said.
In 2016, retailers focused on simplifying their discounts and offers, and the level of promotional sales fell to 37 percent as a result – the lowest level over Christmas since 2009.
The big four supermarkets – Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons – together accounted for 71.4 percent of market share, with a sales increase of 0.1 percent – the first time that all four have collectively grown since June 2014.
