Grocery sales were at their highest since March 2024, according to Kantar data for the four weeks ended 29 December 2024, with shoppers spending 30% more on 23 December than any other day in the year.
Consumers were more willing to treat themselves this year, with sales of premium own-label products up 14.6%. More shoppers also chose to avoid the chaos in the supermarkets, with online sales hitting £1.6bn – reaching 5.6m households this Christmas.
Total Meat, fish and poultry volumes remained level with Christmas 2023, despite a decrease in retail promotions across all red meat roasting joints.
Good year for Turkey
Whole turkey sales experienced 2.4% year-on-year volume growth, boosted by an increase in promotions versus Christmas the previous year. Whole chicken fared similarly during the reported period, with a 2.3% increase in volume.
In contrast, a decline in promotions saw lamb, pork and beef volumes dip during Christmas 2024, down 3.6%, 3.9% and 2.6% respectively. That said, Gammon roasting joints also had a good year, with a +1.4% volume increase year-on year.
Volumes of gammon roasting joints sold during December represent 24.4% of all gammon roasting joint volumes sold during 2024, demonstrating the importance of gammon at Christmas festivities.
Total dairy volumes fell 5.3% versus the previous year, despite strong showings for cow’s cheese and cow’s yogurt – up 3.3% and 4.3% respectively.
Cheese on a comeback
Within cow’s cheese, strong volume growth year-on-year was seen for Cheddar (+3.8%), speciality/continental cheese (+4.8%) and Stilton & British blue cheese (+15.0%) reflecting AHDB’s predictions for cheese boards favouring brie, Cheddar and Stilton.
In fact, sales of Stilton and British blue cheese over Christmas represented 23.7% of total volumes for 2024.
AHDB’s retail & consumer insight manager Emma Wanting said: “It’s positive to see another strong performance from our meat and dairy sectors this Christmas, once again highlighting the importance of Christmas classics like cheese and roasting joints for British consumers.
Cream was also a standout performer for dairy, with double cream volumes up 2.6% year-on-year. Strong promotions for clotted cream (+8.1%) and aerosol cream (+8.2%) were attributed to volume increases over both categories, while a lack of promotion contributed to a 14.2% decline in single cream sales.
Meanwhile, food and non-alcoholic drink inflation remained steady in December 2024 compared to the last year, but prices rose on the month – with retailers painting a bleak picture for future trade.
