Britain's grocery sales soared by 11.4% year-on-year in December over the 12 weeks to December 27, industry data shows.
Shoppers spent $15.9 billion on groceries, according to market researcher Kantar's data. The figure came as Covid-19 restrictions led to the closure of bars, restaurants, and cafés.
Kanta reported that Britain's grocery sales increased by 11.4% year-on-year over the 12 weeks to Dec. 27 — a period covering both the November national lockdown in England and Christmas.
“December is always an incredibly busy time for supermarkets, but take-home grocery shopping is usually supplemented by celebrations in restaurants, pubs, and bars — with 4 billion (pounds) spent on food and drink, excluding alcohol, out of the home during the normal festive month,” said Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar.
“This year, almost all those meals were eaten at home and retailers stepped up monumentally to meet the surge in demand,” he said.
Digital orders accounted for 12.6% of grocery spend during December, compared with 7.4% in December 2019, according to Kantar.
Morrisons surfaced at the top of the list of Britain's big four grocers with a 13.1% year-on-year increase in sales over the 12 weeks. Its market share rose by 0.1 percentage points to 10.4%, its highest level since June 2019.
Market leader Tesco posted sales growth of 11.1%, followed by No. 2 Sainsbury’s with growth of 10.7%. Meanwhile, Walmart-owned Asda, the No. 3, had a growth of 7.8%.
Kantar explained that grocery inflation was 1.3% for the 12-week period, with prices increasing fastest in markets such as fresh pork, canned colas, and chilled deserts while falling in vegetables, fresh beef, and bread.
Lockdown in England
The UK food and grocery market is predicted to rise by 10 percent, or by £19.1bn to £211bn, between 2019 and 2022, based on the latest market and channel forecast research from IGD.
“We forecast e-commerce will gain market share faster than previously predicted, following the dramatic influx of new shoppers and bigger order sizes in 2020 as a result of Covid-19," said Simon Wainwright, director of global insight at IGD.
"While we expect growth to pause in 2021, it will later resume, with continuing expansion from Amazon and the launch of online operations by M&S through Ocado supplementing activity by the Big Four."
The prediction comes as England enters a new lockdown to prevent the spread of the new Covid-19 variant.
In his announcement, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson stressed that people can only go outside for essentials, work if they cannot do so from home, exercise, a doctor’s appointment, and escape from domestic abuse.
Remote learning will start for primary schools, secondary schools, and colleges Tuesday, except in rare cases, he said.
“I completely understand the inconvenience and distress this change will cause millions of people and parents up and down the country,” Johnson said. “The problem isn’t that schools are unsafe for children … the problem is that schools may act as vectors of transmission, causing the virus to spread between households.”
The U.K.’s top medical authorities urged that the country impose an alert level 5, which means that if the country does not take action, the National Health Service capacity “may be overwhelmed in 21 days,” Johnson said.
