According to the latest supermarket share update from Kantar, Valentine's Day sales of steak "shot up" by 12% compared to the previous year.
The data showed that grocery price inflation dropped to 5.3% in February, which Kantar said was its lowest rate since March 2022. Take-home grocery sales also grew by 5.1% for the four weeks to 18th February 2024.
Tom Steel, strategic insight director at Kantar, said of the seven days before Valentine's Day: "£36 million was spent on meal deals costing £10 or more in the week leading up to 14th February. This figure is slightly down on 2023 when spend hit £43 million, but that's because consumers chose to make more savings this year through price cuts."
Steel said: "Consumers have been navigating a grocery inflation rate of more than 4% for two years now, so this latest easing of price rises is especially welcome.
"Though there’s been lots of discussion about the impact the Red Sea shipping crisis might have on the cost of goods, supermarkets have been pulling out all the stops to keep prices down and help people manage their budgets.
"Consumers’ spending on offers increased by 4% in February, worth £586 million more than the same month in 2023. Sainsbury's and Iceland's efforts paid off in particular, and they were the only retailers to attract more shoppers through their doors.
"The battle between supermarkets' own-label lines and brands also remains fierce. Own-label nipped ahead this month, growing sales by 5.5% versus branded products at 5.3%."
Retail sales remain steady
Kantar reported that UK discounter Lidl was the fastest growing grocer for the sixth month running, achieving double-digit growth with sales up by 10.9% over the 12 weeks to 18th February 2024. Lidl now holds 7.5% of the market share, while fellow discounter Aldi maintained its 9.4% share and boosted sales by 5.7%.
Sainsbury's and Tesco hold 15.6% and and 27.6% market shares respectively, with sales up 7.6% and 6.2%.
Waitrose sales reportedly increased by 3.8% to hold a 4.6% share, while Morrisons' sales were up by 3.1% to hold an 8.8% share. Asda saw sales increase by 1.9%, with a share of 13.8%.
Co-op sales were up by 1.4% with a 5.3% market share, and Iceland grew sales by 2.1% to hold 2.3% of the market. The total online market saw year-on-year growth of 6.8%, while Ocado now holds 1.9% of the market share.
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
