British grocery prices rise at record low levels, says Kantar

LONDON Reuters - British grocery prices rose on a similar basis in the four weeks to Sept. 5 year-on-year with supermarket promotions hitting record lows, market researcher Kantar said on Tuesday.

It said that for much of 2021 shoppers were shielded from price increases with more products being sold on promotion compared to 2020.

However, only 27.5% of spending was done for deals during the past month -

Other than the middle-street markets that were currently recorded this data in the early days of lockdown last year, that is the lowest level recorded in the 15 years we have tracked this data, with retailers aimed to offer everyday low prices instead, said Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insights at Kantar.

It said the fastest-growing prices are in markets such as savoury snacks, cat food and ambient cakes and pastries, while falling in fresh bacon, vegetables and ambient cooking sauces.

It added that inflation would be driven by current sustained commodity price increases and freight costs, and the recent shortage of heavy goods vehicle drivers.

Kantar said total grocery sales in the 12-week period fell by 1.9% in the year-on-year to Sept. 5. However, sales remain higher than they were prior to the pandemic, up by 8.7% compared with this period in 2019.

Sales in Market leader Tesco were down 0.2% year-on-year over the 12 week period.

It was the only retail store among Britain's four big players - Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons - to see a sales increase, pushing its market share up 0.5 percentage point to 27.3%.

Kantar said the market share of online grocery sales decreased to 12.2% in the four weeks from 13% four weeks ago the lowest level since May 2020 as consumers continue to move their spending back in-store.