British grocery sales hit record 11.7b pounds in December: Kantar

[LONDON] December was the busiest month ever for British supermarkets as tightening Covid-19 restrictions and the closure of restaurants, bars and cafés meant shoppers spent 11.7 billion pounds (S$20.1 billion) on groceries, industry data showed on Tuesday.

Market researcher Kantar said take-home grocery sales rose 11.4 per cent year-on-year over the 12 weeks to Dec 27 - a period spanning both the November national lockdown in England and Christmas.

"December is always an incredibly busy time for supermarkets, but take-home grocery shopping is usually supplemented by celebrations in restaurants, pubs and bars - with 4 billion (pounds) spent on food and drink, excluding alcohol, out of the home during the normal festive month," said Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar.

"This year, almost all those meals were eaten at home and retailers stepped up monumentally to meet the surge in demand," he said.

Kantar said digital orders accounted for 12.6 per cent of grocery spend during December, compared with 7.4 per cent in December 2019.

Morrisons was the best performer of Britain's big four grocers with sales up 13.1 per cent year-on-year over the 12 weeks.

Its market share moved up by 0.1 percentage points to 10.4 per cent, its highest level since June 2019.

Market leader Tesco saw sales growth of 11.1 per cent, followed by No. 2 Sainsbury's with growth of 10.7 per cent.

Walmart-owned Asda, the No. 3, was again the laggard with growth of 7.8 per cent.

Kantar said grocery inflation was 1.3 per cent for the 12-week period, with prices rising fastest in markets such as canned colas, fresh pork and chilled deserts while falling in vegetables, fresh beef and bread.

REUTERS