Kantar has released its latest figures for grocery price inflation, reporting a fall in grocery price inflation to below 10% for the first time since July 2022.
Grocery price inflation now sits at 9.7% for the four weeks to 29th October, while take take-home sales rose by 7.4% when compared to the same period in 2022.
Discounter Lidl held the title of fastest growing retailer over the four week period, as sales over the 12 weeks were up by 14.7%. Aldi and Waitrose brought sales growths of 13.2% and 5.4% respectively, taking 9.7% and 4.6% of the market.
Sales were up 10.1% over the 12 weeks to 29th October, with the retailer holding a 15.2% share. Tesco took 27.4% of the market as year-on-year sales growth hit 9.5%.
Co-op sales growth stood at 5.2% as its market share was 6%, however Kantar reported that baskets less than £20 in value pushed the figure up to 16.9%.
Morrisons reportedly held 8.6% of the market with a sales growth of 3.2%, and Asda held a market share of 13.6%.
Iceland saw sales growth of 2.6% over the 12 week period, accounting for 2.1% of the market, while online grocer Ocado held a market share of 1.7% and year-on-year sales growth of 12.6%.
Responding to "pinched pockets"
Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said: “Grocery price inflation has finally dropped into single digits after 16 months of double digit growth, marking a big milestone for the British public and retailers.
“While the drop to 9.7% is positive news and something of a watershed, consumers will still be feeling the pinch. We’re only seeing year-on-year price falls in a limited number of major categories including butter, dried pasta and milk.
“Retailers continue to look at ways of softening the blow for shoppers and slowing the rate of price rises. This has included upping the ante on promotions – every single one of the grocers increased the proportion of sales through deals versus last year which is something that has only happened on one other occasion in nearly ten years.
“Consumer spending on promotions has now hit 27.2% of total grocery sales – the highest level we’ve seen since Christmas last year. This is a big gear shift from October 2022 when this figure was less than a quarter.”
McKevitt stated: “It’s now been over a year and a half of pinched pockets and people are continuing to respond by trading down on the items they’re putting into their baskets. Own label lines have grown ahead of their branded counterparts every month since February 2022, with the latest four weeks showing a sales boost of 8.0% for these lines.
“However, the picture may well change as we go headlong into the festive period, when shoppers typically turn more to brands. The gap between own label and branded goods is at its narrowest since spring last year. Branded sales increased by 6.7% in the latest month, raising the distinct possibility that they will push ahead by Christmas.”
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