UK’s Christmas food spending grows 8.8% to £2.3bn

From:FoodBev

British shoppers spent £2.3bn on food items in the two weeks to Christmas, according to a breakdown of supermarket sales figures published this morning.

The data from insights company IRI showed an 8.8% increase in food expenditure compared to the same period last year. The £219m spent on Christmas cakes, puddings and confectionery, IRI suggested, was evidence of the UK’s sweet tooth.

Across the fortnight ending 26 December, sales of Christmas cakes and puddings were up 6.3% and Christmas confectionery up 8.8%. Christmas confectionery sales alone were up 19% in Christmas week itself, reaching almost £120m. According to IRI’s head of strategic insight, retail solutions and innovation, the figures are indicative of rising levels of disposable income among consumers.

Martin Wood said: “There was an extra peak shopping day in Christmas week 2015 compared with last year, which helped push up the final week’s sales figures, but the level of growth does provide some good news for supermarkets. It shows people are feeling better off at last as wages rise and fuel prices come down, and also that shoppers have not completely abandoned mainstream retailers for the discounters. Competition with discounters has driven down prices, however, keeping value and revenues down even when volumes are up.

“The increase in sales of Christmas cakes, puddings and confectionery could be due to the ‘Bake Off effect’ giving people a taste for sweet things once again. They want to feature high-quality cakes and desserts as centrepieces of their Christmas meal or party spread, but don’t have time to create these themselves. Premium Christmas confectionery also sold particularly well.”

The buying of spirits, sparkling wine and craft beers as last-minute gifts, as well as for entertaining, led to a strong Christmas week for the beers, wines and spirits category, which was up 11.5% on 2014. And, according to IRI, consumer preference towards branded alcohol puts mainstream supermarkets at an advantage to the discounters.

15% more turkey and other fresh poultry (excluding chicken) was sold in Christmas week compared with 2014, but this represented a value increase of only 7.5%. Over the two weeks ending 26 December the unit growth for poultry (excluding chicken) was 9%, but value sales were actually down 0.4%. Sales of sprouts rose in volume but fell in value, while the decline in sales of bacon, gammon and sausages – fuelled by concern over the health implications of processed meats – continued in both volume and value.

Overall supermarket FMCG sales for the fortnight were pushed into growth, IRI revealed, as final week spending topped £3bn – up 7.4% on last year.

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