According to Worldpanel by Numerator, prices continued to rise fastest in the fresh meat category as grocery sales increased by 4%.
Grocery inflation now stands at 5% for the four-week period ending 10th August 2025, with prices rising fastest in the fresh meat category. Prices fell fastest in the dog food category.
Take-home sales at the grocers grew by 4% over the four-week period, with the rate of grocery price inflation reaching 5.2% in July.
Discounter Lidl and online retailer Ocado both achieved a sales increase of 10.7% compared to the same period last year, with both reported to be the fastest growing grocers over the 12 weeks to 10th August 2025. Lidl’s market share reached 8.3%, up by 0.5%, while Ocado now holds 1.9% of the market share, up from 1.8% in 2024. Across all retailers, there was a 6.7% rise in online sales over the 12 weeks.
Sainsbury’s reported a 5.2% increase in spending on the year, which took its market share to 15%. Tesco achieved its largest monthly share gain since December 2024 as its hold of the market rose by 0.8% to reach 28.4%, driven by sales growth of 7.4% compared to the year prior.
Aldi achieved a 10.8% market share, while Asda and Morrisons’ shares now stand at 11.8% and 8.4%, respectively. Waitrose saw a 4.8% rise in spending over the 12 weeks, with its market share sitting at 4.4%. Co-op achieved a 5.4% market share, while Iceland’s share remained at 2.3%.
“We’re still well past the point at which price rises really start to bite and consumers are continuing to adapt their behaviour to make ends meet.”
Fraser McKevitt, Worldpanel by Numerator
Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Worldpanel, commented: “We’ve seen a marginal drop in grocery price inflation this month, but we’re still well past the point at which price rises really start to bite and consumers are continuing to adapt their behaviour to make ends meet.
“What people pay for their supermarket shopping often impacts their spending across other parts of the high street, too, including their eating and drinking habits out of the home.
“Casual and fast service restaurants especially have seen a decline in visitors over the summer, with trips falling by 6% during the three months to mid-July 2025 (Worldpanel by Numerator Out-of-Home, percentage change in trips to quick service restaurants 12 weeks ending 13th July 2025 vs the same period in 2024) – compared with last year.”
Worldpanel highlighted a shift to people looking for foods that were quick and easy to prepare, with McKevitt stating: “The average home cook now spends three minutes less preparing the evening meal than they did in 2017 at just under 31 minutes (Worldpanel by Numerator Usage Foods, time taken to prepare evening meal 52 weeks ending June 2025 vs 52 weeks ending December 2017).
“We can see this trend in the growth of things like microwaveable rice, ready meals and chilled pizza, too, which have grown by 8%, 6% and 5% respectively.”
