Grocers will have an extra trading day this Christmas, meaning overall sales in December – up to and including Christmas Eve – could reach £10 billion, according to Kantar Worldpanel.
According to the latest grocery market share figures from Kantar Worldpanel, published for the 12 weeks to 2nd December 2018, Christmas spending is expected to break records.
Total premium own-label lines are growing at 5.5%, which could lead to record sales in this price tier of £1.1 billion over the 12-week period.
Discounters also continue to perform well, with both Aldi and Lidl experiencing double-digit growth over the last 12 weeks of 2018.
Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel, comments: “Boosted by a number of store openings in November, Aldi maintained its position as the fastest-growing supermarket, and saw its market share rise by 0.7 percentage points to 7.6%.
“Lidl’s market share also jumped – up 0.5 percentage points to 5.6% – with sales of the supermarket’s premium Deluxe line experiencing particularly strong growth of 24%.”
Buoyed by sales growth of 1.5%, Asda led the big four pack and held market share at 15.0%. Tesco and Sainsbury’s both saw sales fall, down 0.1% and 0.2% respectively. Tesco’s market share now stands at 27.6%, while Sainsbury’s clocks in at 16.0%.
Co-op increased sales by 4.5% and attracted an additional 298,000 shoppers through its doors. Meanwhile, Morrisons’ sales increase of 0.5% now marks two years of continual growth for the retailer.
Iceland increased sales for the ninth consecutive period, holding market share steady at 2.2%. Waitrose sales fell by 0.7% and its overall market share dropped to 4.9%.
Online retailer Ocado experienced sales growth of 3.4%. Overall, online FMCG sales jumped by 3.7% compared with this time last year, meaning e-commerce’s share of grocery sales reached a record high of 7.4% in the latest 12 weeks.
Despite retailers and shoppers getting into the festive spirit, the grocery market share figures show the sector is now growing at 2.0% – its slowest rate since March 2017.
McKevitt explains: “Falling inflation now stands at 1.6% – less than half the rate of inflation in December 2017, when it reached 3.6% – leading to a slowdown in the overall market.
“Over the summer, shoppers upped weekly trips to the grocers as they took advantage of the hot weather, but with the mercury dropping the number of trips has tailed off – contributing to a decreasing market growth.”
More than one in eight households have already bought a Christmas pudding, while boxed chocolate and Brussel sprout sales have reached £292 million and £18 million respectively.
