Warm weather and late Easter boost grocery sales - NIQ

(Sharecast News) - Supermarket sales jumped in April, industry data showed on Wednesday, as the late Easter and sunny weather supercharged demand.

According data from NielsenIQ (NIQ), total till sales at UK supermarkets rose 9.6% in the four weeks to 19 April, up from the 2.7% growth seen in March. Easter Sunday fell unusually late this year, on 20 April.

The strongest-performing category was confectionary, snacks and soft drinks, which jumped 19.3%.

However, there was also a sharp increase in fresh food sales, up 11.6%, alongside solid demand for seasonal items like clothes and outdoor accessories.

In-store sales grew by 9.4%, ahead of the 6.3% uplift in online sales. NIQ attributed the stronger demand to the warm, dry weather.

Among individual retailers, Tesco - the UK's biggest supermarket - saw sales rise 6.7% in the last 12 weeks, nudging its market share up to 26.0%.

J Sainsbury, with the second-largest market share at 14.8%, saw a 5.2% improvement in sales.

The discounters Aldi and Lidl continued to show strong growth, with sales rising 7% and 11.2% respectively.

Aldi's market share, of 10.5%, is now approaching Asda's, which eased to 11.7% following a 3.5% fall in sales.

Online-only Ocado Group saw sales jump 18.3%, giving it a market share of 1.9%. Marks & Spencer, which has a market share of 3.9%, saw sales rise 14.7%.

Mike Watkins, head of retailer and business insight at NIQ, said: "Easter has traditionally been a time of year when the larger supermarkets captured more from the incremental spend. But this year, Aldi and Lidl also gained market share.

"But growths were lower in the convenience channel, where sales were up just 5.2% in the last four weeks."

The data echoed figures published by Kantar on Tuesday, showing take-home grocery sales jumped 6.5% in the four weeks to 20 April.