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Sales in the grocery sector received a welcome boost in June/July as shoppers stocked up for the World
Cup, according to Nielsen. Its figures showed that sales in the 12 weeks to
10 July grew 3.2% and sales in the last 4 weeks of this period grew at +3.1%
year on year in Grocery Multiples (source: Nielsen Scantrack). There were two particularly
strong weeks with w/e 26 June seeing sales uplifts of 4.8% and w/e 10 July at +4.1%.
Mike Watkins, Senior Manager, Retailer Services at Nielsen commented, “Overall the
headline growths in food retailing did improve a little in the last 4 weeks but
not as much as hoped for. Shoppers clearly stocked up immediately ahead of
the football matches and there were some impressive weekly growths in some categories.
However these were short term as the way shoppers responded to football related
promotions was by being more promiscuous and by bringing forward expenditure.”
In terms of category performances, Beers/Wine/Spirits was the category that saw
the highest uplifts with sales here growing by 10.6% in the 4 weeks to 12 June and
8.6% in the 4 weeks to 10 July. Crisps and Snacks performed exceptionally
well with sales growths of +9.7% in the 4 weeks to 10 July. Both these categories
were driven by heavy promotional activity with value sales of ‘sharing packs’ of
crisps/snacks peaking at around +30% in the weeks ending 12 June and 26 June. Soft
drinks (+8.4% 4 w/e 10th July) also performed well with the combination of fine
weather and the World Cup boosting sales.
When looking at individual performances of the supermarkets, there wasn’t one clear
winner. Tesco, the official England Team supermarket gained share versus the same
period in 2009 rising from 27.9% in 4 weeks to 11 July 2009 to 28.4% in the 4 weeks
to 10 July 2010. The retailer benefited mostly from shoppers stocking up and
spending more (+4.6%) per visit than they did over the same period in 2009.
Sainsbury’s has also gained share since last year and is again nearing the 15% mark.
Watkins added, “Within the major supermarkets, summer weather also contributed to
the good sales growth at High Street stores*. Waitrose, Morrison's and Sainsbury
attracted the most new shoppers with the Co-operative increasing frequency of visit
the most. However the retailer ranking of sales growths did not change due
to the World Cup.”* High Street stores
are stores between 3,000 and 25,000 sq ft selling space
Table 1: 12 Weekly
% Share of grocery market spend by retailer and value sales % change
|
Retailer
|
12 w/e 11/07/09
|
12 w/e 10/07/10
|
Value Sales
% Change
12 weeks
|
|
Tesco
|
27.9
|
28.4
|
3.7
|
|
Asda
|
15.5
|
15.6
|
3.1
|
|
Sainsbury’s
|
14.3
|
14.9
|
6.2
|
|
Morrisons
|
10.4
|
10.9
|
6.9
|
|
Co-op &
S’field
|
8.8
|
8.0
|
-7.5
|
|
Co-op
|
6.1
|
6.7
|
11.4
|
|
Somerfield
|
2.8
|
1.4
|
-49.5
|
|
Waitrose
|
3.5
|
3.8
|
11.6
|
|
M&S
|
3.6
|
3.7
|
5.8
|
|
Iceland
|
1.7
|
1.9
|
13.5
|
The figures in the table are based
on 12 weeks sales through to 10th July 2010 compared with the same 12 week period
in 2009. Source: Nielsen Total Till, Nielsen Homescan
About Nielsen Homescan Total Till: Unless otherwise stated, data is based
on all purchases, bar-coded and non bar-coded, brought back into the home from any
outlet by an in-home scanning panel of more than 14,500 households. Total
spend includes all items stocked by any outlet, including grocery, general merchandise
and clothing.
NamNews - Wednesday 21st July 2010
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UK: Grocery Sector Sees Welcome, But Short-Lived Uplift During World Cup
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