Food inflation eases as Brits spend more than £12bn over Christmas
A survey covering the four weeks to 25 December 2002 found that food prices fell for a second month running, with supermarket prices up 14.4% year-on-year – down from 14.6% in November and 14.7% in October.
Kantar’s Fraser McKevitt said the figures suggested the worst had now passed but lamented that the rates were still painfully high and were impacting how and what consumers were buying in shops.
Sales over the Christmas period hit a new record of £12.8bn in the UK, topping £12bn for the first time. This was an extra £1.1bn this December compared to the previous year, with sales of cough sweets a driving factor – up 54% from 2021.
Price inflation
Despite the increase in the value of goods sold, Kantar said grocery price inflation was the real driving factor behind this rather than increased purchasing. McKevitt pointed out that sales volumes were actually down by 1% year-on-year.
Notable examples included popular Christmas categories such as mince pies, which saw value sales soar by 19% but volume purchases barely increased at all.
Own-label products saw a boost over the festive period – sales were up 13.3% compared to branded’s 4.7% increase – as consumers continued to ‘trade down’ in a bid to save money.
Premium own-label
“Tesco’s Finest range remains the single largest premium own-label line by some distance, while Aldi and Lidl were the biggest contributors to the premium own-label sector’s overall growth in 2022,” said McKevitt.
Grocers captured the most Christmas purchasing, with Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons accounting for more than two thirds of all spending. Asda led the pack with sales up 6.4%, followed by Sainsbury’s and Tesco achieving sales growth of 6.2% and 6% respectively.
Meanwhile, with the last several years including a series of unprecedented events and challenges, Food Manufacture seeks the expertise of several food and drink leaders to find out what’s on the cards for 2023.
