Nielsen has reported that FMCG sales in the European Union are growing at their fastest rate in six years, with the German economy improving at the most impressive rate, according to LSA.
On a like-for-like basis, the European FMCG economy sales-volume growth was 2.4 per cent for 2015 Q1 – the strongest increase since 2006. In terms of turnover, the improvement for the three months stood at 4.2 per cent – the most impressive figure since the first quarter of 2012, when it stood at 4.7 per cent.
Jean-Jacques Vandenheede, Nielsen’s director of European operations, said, “Four years of predominantly dropping prices have at last manifested in some good news for Europe’s trouble-ridden retailers in the form of record increases in sales volumes.”
In terms of value, the German economy improved by 2.8 per cent during the period in question, that of France improved by 1.5 per cent, and Italy’s FMCG economy by 1.9 per cent. The UK went down by 0.2 per cent in this regard.
Vandenheede says that the fact that two of the three “engines” of the EU FMCG economy (Germany, France and the UK) are improving makes things more “serene” for European retailers, generally.
© 2015 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article written by Peter Donnelly.
