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Kantar: Coronation boost for sparkling wine

23 May 2023 By Arabella Mileham

Retail sale of wine saw a big boost on the back of the coronation of King Charles III, the latest data from Kantar shows, with Waitrose the clear winner of the royal occasion.

The latest stats from the retail analysts saw sales of sparkling wine rise 129% ahead of the big day, with still wine also up by a third (33%). This was due to rising demand rather than price inflation, Kantar noted, with inflation in wine currently sitting at only 1%.

Overall grocery sales rose by 16% during the week of the coronation, adding almost £218 million to the tills – with Waitrose in particular seeing a substantial uplift in sales. As a result, sales at the upmarket retailer rose 4.8% over the 12 weeks, marking is highest rate of growth since April 2021, helping to boost its market share to 4.6%.

Aldi topped the list of fastest growth, with sales up 24.0%, followed by Lidl (23.2%), boosting market share to 10.1% and 7.7% respectively. Asda also saw growth of 10.6%, ahead of Sainsbury’s 10.5% and Tesco’s 8.9% growth. The Coop also daw sales nudge upwards, by 2.9%, although Morrisons’ growth was more muted growth at 0.6%, none-the-less making it its third consecutive period of sales growth this month.

Grocery inflation

Meanwhile, take-home grocery sales rose by 10.8% over the month, and grocery price inflation fell for the second month in a row, in the four weeks to 14 May 2023. Despite this welcome news for shoppers, McKevitt cautioned that it is still “incredibly high” at 17.2%, which is the third fastest rate of grocery inflation seen since 2008.

“This could add an extra £833 to the average household’s annual grocery bill if consumers don’t shop in different ways,” he said.

And there is evidence of consumers being increasingly savvy – own label good saw overall growth of 15.2% this month – nearly double that of branded products, which rose 8.3%. However, Kantar noted that the gap between own label and branded products was narrowing in most stores, helped by some of the retailer’s loyalty discounts, notably at Sainsbury’s, with the relaunched nectar card.

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