Kantar Grocery Market Share January 2024

4/12 weeks to 21 January 2024

Key points:

• Grocery price inflation fell to 6.8% in January, down from 6.9% in December 2023, according to Kantar. This is a softer decline that the 2.2pp fall seen between November and December. 
• Take-home grocery sales increased in value by 2.9% in the four-week period. Items bought on offer accounted for 27% of all grocery spending in January compared with 32% in December, reflecting relatively heavier discounting over the Christmas period. 
• As households alter their spending behaviour in response to high living costs, Kantar found that 86 million more lunchboxes were brought to work in 2023. 
• Dry January also had an impact on alcohol sales, which fell by more than half compared with the previous month, with almost 6% of packs of beers sold in the month being no or low-alcohol versions, up from 4% at the end of 2023. 
• Veganuary further resulted in an 8% increase in sales of own label plant-based items. However, the impact of sales of health-related items was softer on the whole compared with previous years, pointing to the spread of spending on this area beyond an initial January spike. 
• Looking ahead to February, grocery sales will be impacted by consumers’ spending for Valentine’s day and the extent to which this is cut back. 
• Sainsbury’s and Tesco both gained market share in the 12 weeks to 21 January on annual basis, taking up 15.7% and 27.6% of the market respectively. Lidl was the fastest growing grocery in the UK for the fifth consecutive month, as well as being the only retailer to experience double-digit spending growth in the 12-week period, resulting in a market share of 7.5%.
• Online sales grew by 6.3% in the 12-week period, slightly outpacing Ocado’s spending growth of 4.0%. The retailer has a 1.7% share of the total market.

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