Over three million households bought at least one pumpkin, Kantar figures show
October was the biggest sales month of the year at grocery retailers, new figures from Kantar show.
Take-home sales at the grocers increased by 2.3 per cent over the four weeks to 3 November 2024 to reach £11.6 billion, the data analyst revealed. The take-home sales rise coincided with a jump in the number of shopping trips made by households, hitting a four-year high at 480mn.
Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, explained: “October 2024 was the busiest month for the supermarkets since March 2020, when people were preparing for the first national lockdown. Trip numbers have been going up gradually for some time, but this steady march hasn’t reached pre-Covid levels of shopping frequency just yet. The average for each household is slightly over four trips per week.”
Halloween played a part in galvanising sales and there are signs that some consumers are looking further ahead in the calendar, starting their Christmas shopping early. Some 3.2mn households bought at least one pumpkin.
Slight rise in grocery inflation
Grocery price inflation was 2.3 per cent this period, up slightly on September’s figure but still within typical levels. The rate has now been below 3 per cent every month since the early summer.
Promotional activity by the grocers is helping to keep prices down and supporting sales of branded goods in particular. “Spending on deals has been going up consistently for the past 18 months and it now makes up 28.6 per cent of all sales,” McKevitt said. ”Offers are helping to lift branded sales especially. The growth gap between brands and own-label is the biggest it’s been since February 2021, sitting at 4.9 and 2.7 per cent apiece.”
Ocado and Lidl continue their charge
Among the retailers, Ocado topped the growth table, boosting its sales by 9.5 per cent over the 12 weeks to 3 November 2024. With sales up by 7.4 per cent, Lidl was the fastest-growing retailer with a bricks and mortar presence for the 15th period in a row, continuing this run into a second year.
Lidl secured 326,000 additional shoppers this period, more than any other retailer, and saw particularly strong fresh produce sales growth at 22 per cent.
The two largest supermarkets in Britain also outperformed the wider market. With sales up across all its store formats and online, Tesco’s sales rose by 4.6 per cent, taking it to 27.9 per cent of the market, up 0.6 percentage points on last year. Spending through the tills at Sainsbury’s climbed 4.4 per cent, making its overall share 15.5 per cent. Sainsbury’s saw a rise in both shopper numbers and trips this period.
