LONDON, Sept 14 (Reuters) - British grocery prices rose 1.3%
on a like-for-like basis in the four weeks to Sept. 5
year-on-year, with supermarket promotions hitting record lows,
market researcher Kantar said on Tuesday.
It said that for much of 2021 shoppers were shielded from
price increases, with more products being sold on promotion
compared to 2020.
However, in the past month only 27.5% of spending was done
on deals.
"Other than the early days of lockdown last year, that is
the lowest level recorded in the 15 years which we have tracked
this data, with retailers aiming to offer everyday low prices
instead," said Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer
insight at Kantar.
It said fastest-rising prices are in markets such as savoury
snacks, cat food and ambient cakes and pastries, while falling
in fresh bacon, vegetables and ambient cooking sauces.
Last week Morrisons, Britain's fourth-largest
supermarket group, warned industry-wide price rises were coming.
It said inflation would be driven by recent sustained
commodity price increases and freight costs, and the current
shortage of heavy goods vehicle drivers.
Kantar said total year-on-year grocery sales fell by 1.9% in
the 12 weeks to Sept. 5. But sales remain higher than they were
before the pandemic, up by 8.7% compared with this period in
2019.
Sales at market leader Tesco were up 0.2% over the
12-week period year-on-year.
It was the only grocer among Britain's big four players -
Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons - to see a sales
increase, pushing its market share up 0.5 percentage point to
27.3%.
Kantar said the market share of online grocery sales fell to
12.2% in the four weeks to Sept. 5 from 13% four weeks ago – the
lowest level since May 2020 as consumers continue to move their
spending back in-store.
(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Dan Grebler)