The UK saw growth in food sales as customers turned to cooking from scratch as they battled cost of living concerns, according to the latest data from NIQ.
Total till sales grew at UK supermarkets by 5.3% in the four weeks ending 27 January 2025, up from 3.6% growth recorded in December.
With a better outlook on food inflation at 1.6% compared to last year’s 6.4%, there was good unit growth of 0.9% at grocery multiples.
However, growth slowed after the new year.
Categories
January is typically a time of year for a healthy reset for consumers, and NIQ data shows 12% of British households purchased meat-free substitutes in the last four weeks.
While this is a small drop from 14% the year before, shoppers have not cut back on healthy diets with double-digit growth in freshly prepared fruit – up 16% – and fresh vegetable accompaniments, which grew by 9%.
Meat, fish and poultry was the fastest-growing super category with 9.1% growth, as shoppers sought to cook protein-rich meals as part of New Year diets.
This was followed by pet care at 8.3% growth and dairy products at 6.8%.
In addition to this, NIQ’s data shows that half of all UK households now say they cook from scratch every day or most days, with around 16% doing so more due to the rising cost of living.
The impact of this shift in behaviour marks a spike in demand for easy hacks to speed up or elevate the dining experience, with a boost in sales for fresh gravy (28%), fresh dough and pastry (18%), fresh dips (15%) and fresh cream and custard (14%).
Retailers
In terms of retailer performance, Ocado led with sales growth of 15.6% compared with the same period last year.
Marks & Spencer followed at 9.7%. The retailer's bigger store formats motivated shoppers to add more items to their baskets, and its dine-at-home meals helped its growth.
There was also continued growth at the discounters Lidl (7.8%) and Aldi (3.8%), with both retailers gaining new shoppers and more store visits.
‘Cost Of Living’
Commenting on the results, the head of retailer and business insight at NIQ Mike Watkins said, “The lift to grocery sales in the last four weeks was helped by the timing of the New Year, with a proportion of sales coming from the New Year festivities which was the week ending 4 January (+10.0%).
“However, after this, weekly growth in January was slightly lower.
“Whilst overall Total Till sales growth was higher than December, the underlying trend is closer to 3% which is the average growth in the most recent three weeks.
“NIQ Homescan data shows that the cost of living is still firmly consumers’ number one concern at the start of 2025.
“Shoppers are looking to save money and eat healthier leading to a growing trend in scratch cooking, which is one of the key behaviours driving the strong unit growth (+2%) and value growth (+6.8%) in fresh food categories in the last four weeks.”
