Grocery sales rise as some shoppers stockpile for Brexit

Despite stockpiling by 10% of shoppers, Kantar reported that grocery growth was only “steady” in the 12 weeks to February 24, when Aldi led the supermarket pack with sales growth of 10%.

Kantar Worldpanel head of retail and consumer insight Fraser McKevitt said: “Despite one in 10 shoppers saying they have started stockpiling groceries and a further 26% reporting that they are considering doing so, this has not been borne out in sales just yet.

“Overall grocery volumes rose by 1.2% in the four weeks to February 24, no increase compared with recent months, and it’s worth noting that hard-to-stockpile fresh and chilled foods made up 39% of the value of the average British shopping basket.”

Tesco’s sales increased 1.3% over the 12 weeks, when customers bought 2% more items on each visit. Tesco’s market share fell by 0.2 percentage points to 27.7%.

Asda’s sales advanced 1%, and its market share edged down to 15.5% from 15.6%. Sales at Sainsbury’s, which aims to merge with Asda, slipped 1% and its market share was down by 0.5 percentage points to 15.7%.

Morrisons’ market share dropped slightly from 10.6% to 10.5%, while its sales were up 0.8%.

Ocado, which intends to create a joint venture with Marks & Spencer and abandon its relationship with Waitrose, increased sales 3.4% and its market share was flat at 1.2%.

Waitrose’s sales rise of 1% was its strongest performance since August 2018, and its market share was flat at 5.2%.

McKevitt said: “There is greater overlap between the Waitrose and Ocado customer bases than those of any other grocers – 41% of Ocado shoppers also visited Waitrose in the past 12 weeks.

“It remains to be seen how many of these are more loyal to the Waitrose product range and how many value the Ocado delivery service specifically – with or without its original partner.”

Lidl’s sales increased by 5.4%, with an increased market share of 5.2%.