Ocado grows ahead of the pack as UK grocery price inflation continues to fall

Grocery price inflation fell to 4.5% in the four weeks to March 17, 2023, compared with the previous month, according to the latest Kantar grocery market share data.

Early Easter shopping boosted sales during the period, with spending up £88m compared with the same period in 2023.

Head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Fraser McKevitt said: “Grocery inflation has come down significantly since hitting an eye-watering peak of 17% in March 2023. However, despite this continued slowdown, many British households are still feeling the squeeze. Twenty-three per cent identified themselves as struggling financially in our data – the same proportion as reported in November last year.”

Shoppers during the period continued to hunt for value, with 78% of respondents saying they are actively buying cheaper groceries, while 68% are using promotions to help manage budgets.

McKevitt said: “Premium own-label lines have been a big beneficiary of consumers trading down, growing by a whopping 16.1% this month – the quickest rate we’ve seen in nearly three years. However, sales of branded goods pushed just ahead of own label overall, increasing sales by 6.1% and 4.7% respectively in the latest four weeks.”

Ocado blitzes the pack

A sustained voucher campaign to attract customers was behind Ocado being the fastest-growing retailer in the period – with sales improving by 9.5% in the latest 12 weeks, ahead of the total online market which grew 6.6%.

Year-on-year sales at Tesco and Sainsbury’s jumped 5.8% and 6.7%, respectively. Morrisons sales increased 3.6% for the period, while Asda sales nudged up 0.2%.

Aldi sales were up 3.1% for the period, while fellow discounter Lidl saw sales jump 8.8%.

Iceland sales jumped 2.2%, Waitrose sales were up 3.9% while the c-store specialist Co-op was the only grocer to report falling sales for the period, inching down 0.4% on the last period.