Customers are facing a £454 increase to their annual grocery bills after grocery price inflation has reached 9.9% over the past four weeks, the second highest level ever recorded by market research company Kantar.
The researcher said prices are rising fastest in markets such as dog food, butter and milk.
Kantar’s head of retail and consumer insight Fraser McKevitt said as prices rise, shoppers are adjusting their behaviour, resulting in more customers turning to own-branded products to drive down the cost of their weekly shop.
“Supermarkets’ own lines are growing by 4.1% this period, while sales of branded items have fallen by 2.4%,” he said.
“It’s a complex picture and the grocers are busy negotiating with their suppliers to mitigate impact at the tills as far as possible. We’ve seen this play out in the headlines in recent weeks, with some well-known brands temporarily disappearing from supermarket shelves over pricing disputes.”
Lidl was Britain’s fastest growing grocer over the 12 weeks with sales up 13.9%, while Aldi’s were up 11.3% with both of the German retailers recording record market shares, with Lidl at 7.0% and Aldi at 9.1% just 0.3% behind Morissons as the fourth biggest grocery store in the UK.
“Over 67% of people in Britain shopped in either an Aldi or a Lidl in the past 12 weeks, with 1.4 million additional households visiting at least one of the discounters in the latest three months compared with last year,” said McKevitt.
