Grocery price inflation reaches highest level since 2011
New figures have shown that like-for-like grocery price inflation has reached its highest level since December 2011 at 5.9%.
The research by Kantar has also found that supermarket sales fell by 5.9% over the 12 weeks to 17 April 2022 and were in decline by 0.6% compared with two years ago.
Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said: “The average household will now be exposed to a potential price increase of £271 per year. A lot of this is going on non-discretionary, everyday essentials which will prove difficult to cut back on as budgets are squeezed. We’re seeing a clear flight to value as shoppers watch their pennies.
“The major retailers are listening to shoppers’ concerns, with Asda launching its Just Essentials line, Morrisons announcing that it is cutting the price of many everyday goods, and Tesco locking in savings through its Clubcard strategy.”
Kantar’s research also shows that Aldi was the fastest growing retailer with a sales uplift of 4.2% over the 12 weeks to 17 April. The retailer was closely followed by Lidl where sales were up 4%.
McKevitt added “Over one million extra shoppers visited Aldi and Lidl respectively over the past 12 weeks compared with this time last year. Both retailers achieved record-breaking market shares, with Aldi now holding 8.8% while Lidl stands at 6.6%. Collectively, the two discounters account for 15.4% of the market – up from just 5.5% a decade ago.”
Apart from Aldi and Lidl, the only other retailer to increase its market share in the period was Tesco with growth of 0.3 percentage points to enable it to hold 27.3% of total grocery sales.
