Ocado and Marks & Spencer have seen food sales surge over the past four weeks, while discount supermarket rivals have also continued to gain new shoppers and store visits.

According to the latest data from NIQ, for the four weeks to 27 January 2025, online supermarket Ocado led in terms of retailer performance with sales growth of 15.6% compared with the same period last year, followed by M&S, with sales up 9.7%.

NIQ said M&S’s performance was helped by its bigger store formats motivating shoppers to add more items to their baskets as well as its dine-in-at-home deals.

Both Lidl and Aldi also experienced continued growth, with sales up 7.8% and 3.8% respectively, as both discounters gained new shoppers and saw more store visits.

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The figures come as total till sales rose by 5.3% at UK supermarkets over the period, up from 3.6% in December, with consumers looking to purchase healthier meal options for the New Year.

NIQ found double-digit growth in freshly prepared fruit and fresh veg, up 16% and 9% respectively, while meat, fish and poultry was the fastest growing category, up by 9.1% as shoppers looked to cook protein-rich meals.

Data also showed that half of all UK households now say they cook from scratch every day or most days, with around 16% doing so more, due to the rising cost of living.

NIQ head of retailer and business insight Mike Watkins said: “The lift to grocery sales in the last four weeks was helped by the timing of the New Year, with a proportion of sales coming from the new year festivities.

“NIQ Homescan data shows that the cost of living is still firmly consumers’ number one concern at the start of 2025. Shoppers are looking to save money and eat healthier leading to a growing trend in scratch cooking, which is one of the key behaviours driving the strong unit growth (+2%) and value growth (+6.8%) in fresh food categories in the last four weeks.”