UK Food Prices Rise at Third Fastest Monthly Rate in a Year

The price of breakfast staples including cereals and coffee continues to soar, taking food inflation to 2.1% in February.

Alliance News 4 March, 2025 | 9:52AM
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Inflation

UK grocery sales growth decelerated last month, with the market share of all large UK supermarket chains growing again, except for Asda, data from Kantar showed Tuesday.

For the 12 weeks ended Feb. 23, total grocery sales rose 3.2% on-year to £36.47 billion. In February alone, sales were 3.6% higher. In the four weeks to Jan. 26, sales had risen 4.3% on-year.

Grocery price inflation held steady at 3.3%, while spending on deals rose again.

Sally Ball, head of retail at Kantar, said:

“Of course, it’s hard to untangle the cost of living crisis from any post-Covid analysis, and the other big headline of the past few years has been consumers' hunt for value.

“You might think that people would shop around more to find the best deals but in fact, that’s not the case. Households visited just under five different grocers this month, the lowest level in February since 2021. The growth of supermarket loyalty schemes is partly behind this as shoppers use them to unlock exclusive discounts.”

Tesco TSCO increased its market share to 28.3% from 27.7% a year ago. The largest supermarket chain in the UK saw 5.8% on-year grocery sales growth in the reported period, according to Kantar.

J Sainsbury’s SBRY market share edged up to 15.7% from 15.5%, with grocery sales climbing 4.8%.

Asda’s market share fell to 12.6% from 13.7%, as sales declined 5.0%.

Aldi’s market share edged up to 10.3% from 10.2%, with sales up 4.9%.

Wm Morrisons Supermarkets' share fell to 8.6% from 8.8%, with sales up 0.7%.

The UK’s sixth largest supermarket chain by market share remained Lidl. Its market share increased to 7.3% from 7.0%, amid sales growth of 8.1%.

The 10th largest UK supermarket chain by share of the market, Ocado OCDO, was the fastest-growing grocer for the 10th consecutive month. Spending at the online-only grocer jumped 9.6% on-year, with its market share increasing to 1.9% from 1.8%.


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