Asda takes the lead as traditional UK supermarkets account for more than two thirds of all spending over the festive season, with year-on-year growth hitting 9.4% – the fastest rate since February 2021.
According to the latest grocery market share data from Kantar, overall take-home grocery sales hit £12.8 billion for the four weeks to 25 December 2022.
Asda lead the group with value sales up by 6.4%, closely followed by Sainsbury’s and Tesco which achieved value sales growth of 6.2% and 6% respectively.
The data also revealed that consumers continued to trade down to supermarkets’ own label products throughout December, with sales rising by 13.3%, well ahead of a 4.7% increase in branded lines.
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Aldi remained the fastest growing grocer overall with 27% growth taking its market share up from 7.7% this time last year to 9.1%. Sales at Lidl increased by 23.9%, moving its market share up to 7.2%.
Iceland’s sales grew by 10.2%, with sales of frozen poultry rising by 15% and frozen prepared foods by 18%. This pushed Iceland’s market share to 2.5%.
Co-op’s market share now stands at 5.6% while Waitrose has 4.7%. Ocado increased sales by 8.2%, maintaining a market share of 1.7%. Although sales at Morrisons fell by 2.9%, the supermarket posted its best performance since June 2021.
The online grocery sector also remained in growth with value sales up 4% year -on-year. However, there was a slight decline in online’s total share compared to Christmas 2021, nudging down to 11.6%.
The data also revealed that Friday 23 December was the most popular shopping day of the year, with more than half of the nation’s households going to stores or receiving a delivery.
Kantar head of retail and consumer insight, Fraser McKevitt said: “The British supermarket sector is more competitive than ever and the grocers are keen to retain customers by offering their own festive alternatives.
“This has included an emphasis on premium own label products, giving consumers a way to treat themselves this Christmas,” he explained.
McKevitt added that these lines always do well at this time of year and this festive period was no exception, with sales growing by 10.2% to hit more than £700 million for the first time.
He continued: “Tesco’s Finest range remains the single largest premium own label line by some distance, while Aldi and Lidl were the biggest contributors to the premium own label sector’s overall growth in 2022.”
Frazer McKevitt also said people visited physical grocery stores 5.2% more often than this time last year – saying that “December was stores’ busiest month since the start of the pandemic.”
