UK grocery sector sees alcohol sales surge despite reopening of hospitality sector
UK grocery sector alcohol sales jumped by £29m in the four weeks to June 19th compared to the preceding four week period, despite pubs, bars and restaurants being open for business.
This is according to newly released Kantar data, which says that the surge in beer, wine and spirits sales were boosted by the European football championships and the late Bank holiday
“Often seen as the crowning glory of British summer time, a hot late May Bank Holiday this year had shoppers celebrating,” confirmed Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight.
“Despite pubs and restaurants being open, take-home sales of alcohol increased by £29m compared to May in part thanks to events including the bank holiday, with another peak coming in the lead up to the much-anticipated European football championships in June,” he said.
However, the reopening of bars, restaurants and pubs did take some spending away from the off-trade with supermarket footfall during the period down by five million trips compared to May. McKevitt said that while it was “encouraging” to see shoppers returning to pre-pandemic habits, there is still some way to go before the market returns to anything resembling normality.
"That’s demonstrated by the fact that sales in the past 12 weeks were still £3.3bn higher than in 2019 before the pandemic hit. Retailers will also be benefiting from sales of goods consumed on-the-go, such as picnics and lunches eaten at work, which are not captured in these numbers."
Kantar’s data also revealed that consumers are shopping more frequently and buying less per shop compared to last year, with the average spend per trip down by 13.6% in the past 12 weeks (to 13 June). Meanwhile, online shopping remained flat, with e-commerce's share of the total market holding steady at 13.4%.
“This plateau, and the fact that year on year sales were up by just 0.2%, suggests the appetite for large online shops is approaching a new baseline,” said McKevitt who went on to note the rapid growth of fast track delivery services for smaller top up shops, with Tesco launching its Whosh platform in May to compete against start up disruptors including Gorrillas, Getir and Weezy which are moving into the market for smaller trips.