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UK grocery price inflation eased a bit in recent weeks, numbers from market researcher Worldpanel showed on Tuesday, as branded products outpaced own-brand sales by the widest margin in nearly a year and a half. UK grocery sales in the 12 weeks to August 10 rose 4.5% to £35.74 billion from £34.2 billion a year prior. In the final four weeks of the survey, take-home sales at the grocers grew 4.0% annually. Grocery inflation stood at 5.0% in the final four weeks, slowing slightly from 5.2% in July. ‘We’ve seen a marginal drop in grocery price inflation this month, but we’re still well past the point at which price rises really start to bite and consumers are continuing to adapt their behaviour to make ends meet,’ commented Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Worldpanel. ‘What people pay for their supermarket shopping often impacts their spending across other parts of the high street too, including their eating and drinking habits out of the home. Casual and fast service restaurants especially have seen a decline in visitors over the summer, with trips falling by 6% during the three months to mid-July 2025 compared with last year. ‘The outliers in this are coffee shops which have bucked the trend.’ Worldpanel, formerly known as Kantar, noted that sales of branded grocery items increased 6.1% in August, ahead of grocers’ own-label alternatives, which rose 4.1%. This was the largest gap in favour of brands since March 2024. Branded sales made up 46% of all grocery spending. They were particularly dominant in personal care, confectionery, hot drinks and soft drinks, where brands accounted for 75% of sales. Among the individual grocers, Tesco PLC remained the largest by market share, though Lidl and Ocado were tied for the top spot as the fastest growing grocers. Tesco sales improved 7.4% on-year over the 12-week period to £10.15 billion, taking its market share up to 28.4% from 27.6%. J Sainsbury PLC sales rose 5.2% on-year to £5.37 billion, taking its market share to 15.0% from 14.9%. Sales at both Lidl and Ocado were up 11%, to £2.95 billion and £683 million respectively. Lidl’s share of the market edged up to 8.3% from 7.8%, while Ocado now holds 1.9% against 1.8% a year earlier. Asda’s sales slumped 2.6% to £4.22 billion, with a market share of 11.8%. Tesco shares were up 1.0% to 416.00 pence early Tuesday in London. Sainsbury’s was up 0.4% to 300.80p. Ocado was up 1.0% to 356.77p. Ocado’s partner in the Ocado Retail joint venture, Marks & Spencer Group PLC, was up 1.8% to 352.74p. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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