Warm weather conditions in late June and early July have boosted retail sales, with soft fruit and salads among the star performers. Like-for-like food sales for the three months April to June (weighted average) were up 5.4 per cent on 2008 when sales were hit by cold weather.
The heatwave helped the upward movement. Stephen Robertson, director general of the British Retail Consortium, said: “June’s sunshine gave overall sales a much-needed boost. The heatwave helped food retailers and got customers buying.”
But Joanne Denney-Finch, ceo of retail analyst and think-tank IGD, sounded a word of warning. She said: “Growth in the latest month was down slightly on the previous month; some of this slowdown is attributable to a gradual cooling of inflationary trends, with retailers continuing to deliver both strong promotional packages and base price reductions.
“IGD research has shown how shoppers actively manage their exposure to grocery price inflation through a range of tactics - for example, a third are buying more own-label products, 26 per cent are buying more at discount supermarkets and 36 per cent (up from 29 per cent last year) look at price first when choosing what to buy.”
Meanwhile, at Waitrose weekly sales figures for the seven days to July 4 were 14.2 per cent up on the same week last year - a record for the retailer outside Easter and Christmas trading weeks.
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