UK drinks sales outstrip Christmas groceries

Supermarket alcohol outpaced shrinking grocery sales in the UK over the important Christmas trading period, new figures show.

Sparkling wine sales grew in value by 11% during the 12 weeks to 3 January (Photo: Wiki)

The value of alcohol sales grew by 2.2% during the 12 weeks to 3 January – impressive considering the grocery market failed to witness its typical Christmas boost, instead declining by 1.8% due to continuing price deflation.

The amount that consumers spent on Christmas dinner also declined by 2.2% in 2015, as poultry prices and traditional vegetables saw their prices dip.

However, consumers’ increasingly expensive tastes in drinks have been thanked for the boost in alcohol sales.

The growing popularity of sparkling wine such as Champagne and Prosecco saw the category grow in value by 11%, according to the figures from Kantar Worldpanel.

The performance of UK retailers also varied, with discounters Aldi and Lidl continuing to outpace the overall market.

Lidl was the fastest growing retailer overall, with sales up by 18.5% in the festive period.

“An expanded product range, especially in its Deluxe premium line, has encouraged consumers to increase the size of their shop, with average basket sizes up by 7% to £17.20,” said Fraser McKevitt, head of retail at Kantar Worldpanel.

Lidl was particularly well-placed to benefit from shoppers’ growing attraction to sparkling wine, its UK CEO Ronny Gottschlich said.

“In a year we have doubled our Champagne offering by volume and 2015 was the first year that we offered a Blanc de Blancs Champagne,” he said.

“In addition to this, our Brut Champagne sales have topped over 1 million bottles in 2015, demonstrating an appetite and willingness amongst consumers to upgrade to premium offerings while doing their main family shopping.”

Aldi was the second-fastest growing retailer in the quarter, with an increase in sales of 13.3%.

But despite Aldi and Lidl’s success, consumers are still spending most of their money in more traditional supermarkets.

Discounters’ share of the grocery market has now dipped slightly from the 10.0% achieved just before Christmas, sales figures reveal.

Sainsbury’s was the best performing of the traditional supermarkets. “Its premium Taste the Difference brand posted its biggest ever Christmas sales and promotional efforts were concentrated on simple price cuts rather than complicated multi-buy deals,” McKevitt said.

This helped attract an additional 114,000 shoppers to Sainsbury’s in the period, with sales increasing by 0.8% on last year.

Tesco’s sales fell by 2.7%, while Asda and Morrisons’ share of the market declined to 16.2% and 11.0% respectively.