Supermarket sales fall £55M after England footie fail

By Rod Addy

- Last updated on GMT

The World Cup has had a mixed affect on food and drink sales, because of England's dismal performance
The World Cup has had a mixed affect on food and drink sales, because of England's dismal performance

Related tags World cup Fifa world cup Bread

Food and drink sales dropped by £55M after England’s dismal performance in the Brazil 2014 World Cup, having risen initially when the tournament first began, according to IRI data.

Sales of alcohol, soft drinks, bagged snacks, pizza, chilled party food and bread rolls in the first week of matches shot up by more than £50M, the market analyst said. However, in the week after England lost to Uruguay that peak slumped by £38M, it claimed. 

During the third World Cup week (week ending June 28), after England’s Costa Rica match, sales dropped again, almost back to where they started. IRI estimated that the lost sales caused by World Cup fatigue over the past two weeks could be worth between as much £55M – £60M. 

Net sales for beer, wines and spirits in week three were up by £5.7M compared to the same week in 2013. However, this was a £37.1M reduction in sales value compared to week one of the World Cup. 

Reduced significantly​ 

Soft drinks sales growth reduced significantly, from 18% in week one to 9% in week two and below 6% in week three. Sales were £5.2M lower in week three than they were in the first week. 

Altogether, value sales of bagged snacks, pizza, chilled party snacks, bread rolls, baguettes, coleslaw, chilled salads and dips, were £3.3M lower through the UK’s major supermarket chains in week three than they were in week one. Only sales of Scotch Eggs grew, up by almost 5% in value. 

According to Tim Eales, director of strategic insight at IRI, “The World Cup affect has virtually worn off now. Sales would have definitely been higher if England had stayed in the competition a bit longer.”​ 

That said, IRI stressed over the whole three weeks so far, the event had delivered a net benefit to the trade, with sales £12M higher than average sales in the four pre-World Cup weeks. 

Highest increase​ 

Ale and stout joined the World Cup party with sales volumes growing by 13.9%, the highest increase in sales volumes. 

Champagne and sparkling wine continued to grow strongly, with volumes up by 13.3% and value up by 15.7%. 

Cider maintained its momentum with both volume and value sales in the last week, still up 2.7% in volume and 6.9% in value on the four weeks immediately prior to the World Cup. 

With more World Cup weeks to come, retailers and manufacturers will be hoping that we still supplement our viewing of the final matches with booze and snacks. 

With Wimbledon over, they can only hope the Tour de France in Yorkshire and the British Grand Prix at Silverstone will boost consumer sales.

Related topics Ambient foods Bakery Drinks

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