Grocery inflation in the UK fell in March for the 14th consecutive month, according to data from Kantar released today.
The fall was driven partly by an increase in supermarkets’ promotional activity.
The market researcher said annual grocery price inflation was 3.2% in the four weeks to 14 April, down from 4.5% in the previous four-week period.
Kantar said that items bought on offer made up 29.3% of supermarket sales. This figure is at its highest level outside of Christmas since June 2021.
The head of retail and consumer insight at Worldpanel by Kantar Fraser McKevitt said, “The emphasis on offers, coupled with falling prices in some categories like toilet tissues, butter and milk, has helped to bring the rate of grocery inflation down for shoppers at the till.”
He added, however, that prices were still rising quickly in markets such as chilled fruit juices, drinks, sugar and chocolate confectionary.
Official UK data published last week showed that overall inflation fell to 3.2% in March. This was reportedly driven by a slowdown in food inflation to 4%.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has sought to take credit for falling inflation. However, there has been little sign of an opinion poll boost for the struggling Conservative Party.
It lags badly behind the opposition Labour Party ahead of an expected election later this year.
Market Share
Kantar said that online supermarket Ocado was once again the fastest-growing grocer in the 12 weeks to 14 April, with a 12.5% growth in sales.
Tesco remains as the market leader with 27.4% of market share and seeing sales growth of 5.9%.
Sainsburys is in the number two spot with 15.3% of market share and 6.8% sales growth.
Asda holds the third spot with 13.4% but lagged behind in growth with sales down 0.4% and its market share down 60 basis points. The results sharply contrast the optimistic tone in its 2023 results, published on Monday.
Aldi and Morrisons came next, with 10% and 8.7% of market share respectively, followed by discounter Lidl with 8%.
Aldi and Lidl saw sales growth of 2.8% and 9.1% respectively, though Aldi’s market share edged lower.
The list was rounded out by the Co-operative (5.4%), Waitrose (4.5%), Iceland (2.2%) and Ocado (1.9%).
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