Monday 19 December 2016

UK Supermarket Sales Fell By Almost £800 Million This Year Due To Price Wars And Tighter Budgets

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New industry figures, by analysts Nielsen for The Grocer magazine, revealed that shoppers spent less and bought fewer things overall this year, with many of the big four supermarkets – Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons – suffering as a result.

Unsurprisingly, the growing popularity of discount supermarkets Aldi and Lidl has hit sales at their bigger rivals.

While the big four all lost market share this year, Aldi’s share of the grocery market grew to 7.1 per cent in the year to November 2016, up from 5.5 per cent. Lidl’s market share rose to 4.6 per cent.

For all of the big four, meat was one of the worst areas for sales this year.

Sales were down by £328 million in total, including a £123 million fall for bacon – which has fallen out of favour following health warnings linking it to cancer.

Aldi and Lidl benefited from the big four’s losses in this area, with meat sales up 17 per cent this year at the German retailers.

Dairy sales at the big four have also fallen. In fact, all-in-all the major retailers saw £213 million wiped off their dairy sales this year. In a bid to salvage the decline, the big four have cut the price of cheese by an average 3 per cent and butters and spreads by 2.6 per cent.

The health enthusiasts out there will be glad to see that, despite £58.2 million being wiped off veg sales at the big four, thanks to price cuts at Aldi and Lidl, fruit and veg now accounts for 15.2 per cent of sales for the discounters.

Anti-allergen ‘free from’ foods, such as gluten or lactose free products, were also up by £123 million. It is the third year in a row that supermarkets have posted falling sales, but this is the worst so far, with losses of £733 million in 2015 and £477 million the previous year.


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