Sales in the grocery sector received a welcome boost in the June/July period as British shoppers stocked up for the World Cup, according to Nielsen Scantrack.
Sales in the 12 weeks to 10 July grew 3.2% and sales in the last four weeks of this period grew at +3.1% year-on-year in grocery multiples.
Mike Watkins, senior manager of retailer services at Nielsen, said: “Overall the headline growths in food retailing did improve a little in the last four weeks but not as much as we hoped for.
“Shoppers clearly stocked up immediately ahead of the football matches and there were some impressive weekly growths in some categories. However these were short-term as the way shoppers responded to football related promotions was by being more promiscuous and by bringing forward expenditure.”
In terms of category performances, beers/wine/spirits was the category that saw the highest uplifts with sales up 10.6%. Crisps and snacks performed well with sales growths of +9.7% in the four weeks to 10 July.
Source: Nielsen Scantrack
