British supermarkets have performed well over the last quarter, benefitting from hot weather in May and the Royal Wedding’s ‘Meghan Markle’ effect.
Sales in the grocery sector were 2.7 percent up on last year in the 12 weeks to the 20th May, according to the latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel.
“Record-breaking temperatures, a hot bank holiday weekend and Royal Wedding fever all contributing to a bumper period”, Kantar said, with the Friday before the day of the wedding and the FA Cup Final lending the biggest boost to sales. Supermarkets sold £415 million worth of good in the 24 hour period.
Hot weather also increased sales of BBQ items, with sales of burgers and sausages up by 39 percent and 12 percen t respectively. Non-alcoholic beer sales jumped by 64 percent and over 16.6 million households bought ice cream.
Morrisons (LON:MRW) recorded sales growth of 2.9 percent, well ahead of the overall market, with Asda also recording sales growth of 2.8 percent.
Tesco (LON:TSCO) increased sales but dropped market share by 0.1 percentage points to 27.7 percent. Over the past 12 weeks Lidlwas the only bricks and mortar retailer to experience double-digit sales growth, up 10.4 percent.
