Take-home sales at grocers increased by 2.5% over the four weeks to 1 December 2024. Meanwhile, symbols & independents have seen a 3.7% year-on-year sales drop over the same period.

The data, from Kantar, shows a continuing disparity in sales between the major grocers and symbols & independents. The latter sector has experienced eight months of consecutive year-on-year sales decline.

In a sign that supermarkets are to see even further growth, Kantar predicts that sales for major grocers will continue growing over the four weeks of December for the first time, reaching £13bn.

Supermarkets are expected to particularly cash in on Monday 23 December. It is predicted to be the “single busiest day for the supermarkets this year”, according to Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar.

He said: “Shoppers are grabbing the chance to spend that little bit more than usual on Christmas specials, and champagne, wine and spirits saw the biggest levels of buying on deal.”

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In terms of popular product categories, assorted sweet biscuits and biscuits for cheese saw sales double in November compared with the month before, Kantar reported. Meanwhile, 8% of shoppers bought a Christmas pudding.

“Many of us take the chance to treat ourselves at this time of year and retailers are rolling out seasonal product lines to help us celebrate in style,” McKevitt continued. “The proportion of spending on premium own label products reached 5% over the latest four weeks and we expect it to climb even higher in December to nearly 7%.”

Meanwhile, wider grocery price inflation remains relatively stable at 2.6%. Grocers are prioritising low pricing over multibuys.  

“Sales on promotion reached 30% in November, the highest since Christmas last year,” he said. “It’s retailer price cuts, often accessed through loyalty cards, that are really driving this.  While multibuy promotions have stayed flat, spending on price cut offers has grown by 14%, worth £355 million more than last year.”

Lidl was pegged as the fastest growing bricks-and-mortar grocer, with sales up by 6.6%, and share climbing 0.3 percentage points to reach 7.7%. Meanwhile, the UK’s two biggest grocers – Tesco and Sainsbury’s – now have a combined market share of 44%.

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