The average household grocery bill is expected to rise by £380 (€443) this year in the UK, as inflation takes its toll, according to Kantar.
This is £100 more than the expected average increase Kantar reported in April, "showing just how sharp price increases have been recently and the impact inflation is having on the sector," according to Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar.
Kantar noted that like-for-like grocery prices rose by 8.3% over the past month, up 1.3 percentage points on May to reach their highest level since April 2009.
'Watching Budgets Closely'
“The inflation number makes for difficult reading and shoppers will be watching budgets closely as the cost-of-living crisis takes its toll," McKevitt added, saying that many shoppers have swapped branded for own-brand products.
Private-label sales were up 2.9% over the lates four-week period, with branded items down 1.0%. Store footfall rose by 3.4% over the period, with online penetration falling to 12.0% – its lowest level since May 2020.
“As well as the return to pre-COVID habits, this drop could be the result of shoppers looking to cut costs by avoiding delivery charges," noted McKevitt.
Read More: UK Food Price Inflation Of 15% Is Coming, IGD Warns
Supermarket Shares
In the 12-week period to 12 June, Lidl was the best-performing supermarket, seeing its sales up 9.5% year-on-year, while rival Aldi reported a 7.9% year-on-year increase.
Aldi is now breathing down the neck of 'Big Four' rival Morrisons – the discounter holds a 9.0% market share, while the Bradford-based supermarket group sits on 9.6% share. Morrisons reported a 7.2% decline in year-on-year sales in the period.
While it didn’t achieve year-on-year growth, Tesco out-performed the total market to nudge its share up to 27.3%.
Tesco was the best performing of all the Big Four retailers, seeing a 1.1% decline in sales in the period, compared to a 3.9% drop at Sainsbury's and a 4.8% decline at Asda.
Overall, supermarket sales fell 1.9% during the 12-week period, Kantar said.
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
