British shoppers faced increased pressure on their budgets last month as grocery inflation edged higher, data from Kantar showed on Tuesday.
The market researcher said grocery price inflation was 2.0% in the four weeks to 29 September, having been 1.7% in the previous four-week period.
The data showed prices are rising fastest in products such as chilled soft drinks, chocolate confectionary and skin care, while they are falling fastest in household paper products, dog food and cat food.
Official data published last month showed overall UK inflation stayed at 2.2% in August.
Data for September will be published 16 October and it will be the last update before the new Labour government’s 30 October budget statement.
Kantar’s data showed UK grocery sales rose 2.0% in value terms over the four-week period year-on-year, versus 3.0% in last month’s report.
Market Share
Over the 12 weeks to 29 September, online supermarket Ocado was again the fastest-growing grocer with sales up 10% year-on-year, taking its market share to 1.8%.
Industry leader Tesco saw sales growth of 5.2% and its market share rose 60 basis points to hit 28.0% – its largest share since December 2017.
Sales at number two retailer Sainsburys rose 5.1% but number three – Asda – was once again the laggard, with sales down 5.1%.
Asda also lost 1.1 percentage points of market share year-on-year.
Kantar said discounters Aldi and Lidl saw sales growth of 1.8% and 8.8% respectively.
Record monthly rainfall in September boosted demand for winter staples, the researcher noted, with sales of hot chocolate and soup up 28% and 10% respectively.
It said Halloween sales had also started well, with pumpkin sales nearly doubling last September’s figure at just under £1 million.
Separately on Tuesday, survey data from the British Retailer Consortium showed shoppers increased their spending moderately in annual terms last month.
However, ongoing concerns of consumers about the financial outlook kept demand low for big ticket items such as furniture.
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