Total grocery sales increased by 3.2 percent compared to the same time last year, according to the latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel, marking 12th consecutive period in a row that total market sales have exceeded 3 percent.
Ready meal sales were a strong driver of the results, with February festivities including Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year lending themselves to the ready meal market. Sales of chilled ready meals jumped 26 percent over the month, with consumers taking advantage of retailers’ dinner-time set menu options.
Tesco (LON:TSCO) and Morrisons (LON:MRW) were “neck-and-neck” as the two fastest growing supermarkets of the big four, both reporting sales growth of 2.7 percent over the period. Morrisons hung onto its market share of 10.6 percent and entered its 16th consecutive period of growth, boosted by its premium own-label line The Best.
Overall sales growth at Sainsbury’s now stands at 1.1 percent, with Asda attracting an additional 309,000 shoppers to push sales growth to its highest since June 2014, 2.3 percent.
Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel, said:
“Aldi and Lidl once again battled to be crowned the UK’s fastest-growing supermarket. Aldi pipped Lidl to the post this month as sales grew by 13.9 percent and 13.3 percent respectively. With both discounters working hard to expand their store portfolio, Aldi and Lidl also benefited from increased shopper numbers as well as growth in basket size.
“Co-op returned to growth for the first time since July 2017 with sales up 0.4 percent, after a period of decline following the retailer’s sale of nearly 300 stores to McColl’s. Iceland held share steady at 2.2 percent compared to this time last year, increasing sales by 1.3 percent”.
Grocery inflation now stands at +2.9 percent for the 12 week period ending 25 February 2018, adding to the solid 12 weeks of price increases that have followed a period of grocery price deflation between September 2014 to December 2016.