Shoppers opted for premium products this Christmas as grocery inflation hit 3.5 per cent
Grocery sales hit £11.7bn over the Christmas period, as shoppers were keen to make the most of the festive period after Covid restrictions hampered celebrations last year.
Shoppers spent record amounts on supermarkets’ premium own brand products, with £627m spent on pricier items over the four weeks to 26 December. This was an increase of 6.8 per cent compared to 2020, according to fresh data from Kantar.
Head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, Fraser McKevitt, said : “The appetite to celebrate and splash out that little bit more this year pushed sales of luxury own-brand products up across the board.”
Sparkling and still wine sales grew 22 per cent and 18 per cent respectively, while there was also a 31 per cent jump in crisps sales.
“Tesco’s Finest and Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference are easily the largest premium own-label ranges, but we saw the fastest growth from other ranges such as AsdaExtra Special and Iceland Luxury,” McKevitt added.
For the three months to Boxing Day, take-home grocery sales hit £31.7bn, which was down three per cent compared to 2020, when the country was heavily restricted from Christmas celebrations at pubs and restaurants.
However, sales were up eight per cent compared to 2019, the pre-pandemic comparative.
Like-for-like grocery price inflation reached 3.5 per cent in the four weeks to 26 December, standing at the highest level since spring 2020.
Tesco continued to outperform its supermarket rivals this Christmas, gaining 0.6 per cent market share to 27.9 per cent. This represents its highest market share since January 2018.
Retailers Aldi, Lidl and Waitrose also grew their shares by 0.3 per cent 0.2 per cent and 0.1 per cent respectively. According to Kantar, every major grocer increased sales compared with the final 12 weeks of 2019, although online retailer Ocado was the only one to grow versus last year.