By James Davey
LONDON (Reuters) – Warm weather and household buying ahead of summer holidays accelerated sales growth at UK supermarkets in August, although No. 3 player Asda continued to struggle, industry data showed on Wednesday.
Market researcher NIQ said sales at UK supermarkets grew 5.5% year-on-year over the four weeks to Aug. 10, against growth of 3.6% in last month’s report.
It said the data, the most up-to-date snapshot of UK consumer behaviour since the July 4 national election, showed the largest jump in sales so far this year, and was aided by a short heatwave. Ice cream sales soared 38%, mineral water sales jumped 32% and soft drink sales were up 14.3%.
Suncare sales jumped 49% and sales of hayfever remedies were up 42% as consumers spent more time outdoors and made purchases ahead of summer vacations.
Echoing data from rival market researcher Kantar last week, NIQ said online grocer Ocado enjoyed the fastest growth over the 12 weeks to Aug. 10 with sales up 14.3%, followed by Marks & Spencer with sales increasing 10.7%.
Market leader Tesco, No. 2 Sainsburys, discounter Lidl and Waitrose also gained market share.
But Asda was the laggard. Its sales fell 6.4% and it lost 1.3 percentage points of market share over the year.
Earlier this month, Asda reported a 5.3% fall in second quarter sales and its chairman, veteran retailer Stuart Rose, told the Telegraph newspaper he was “embarrassed” by the group’s performance.
NIQ said last month that food price inflation was running at 2.3%, higher than Kantar’s latest reading of 1.8%.
It said the online channel’s share of grocery spend over the four-week period was 12.8%, up from 12.5% this time last year.
(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
