Supermarkets celebrate bumper £13bn Christmas sales as food inflation hits 3.7%
Champagne and sparkling wine sales provide extra fizz for festive grocery blow out
Shoppers’ grocery spending hit a record high this Christmas with the average household paying out £460 on average, according to the latest Kantar data.
More than £13bn passed through supermarket tills over the four weeks to Friday 29 December, with take-home grocery sales up 2.1 per cent year-on-year. Online spending over the period reached a record £1.6bn.
Grocery price inflation rose to 3.7 per cent – the highest since March but this did not stop people splashing out on festive fare, according to retail analysts Kantar.
Customers splashed out more than normal with sales of branded goods increasing 4.2 per cent, while premium own-label lines surged 14.6 per cent. The latter now account for a record 7 per cent of all sales, as nine in 10 households bought at least one of these products in December.
Sparkling wine and champagne were the standout stars of the festive drink selections with sales totalling £187m. Overall drink sales were up 4 per cent, but more than one in 10 consumers bought a no or low -alcohol drink, up from under 10 per cent last year.
Fraser McKevitt, Kantar’s head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said: “It was a solid Christmas at the supermarkets with sales surpassing £13bn during the four weeks of December for the first time ever, showing people were clearly in the mood to celebrate and spend. However, despite the festive cheer, grocery price inflation has ticked up to 3.7 per cent, its highest level since March 2024.
“In contrast to reports of disappointing footfall across the rest of the high street, it was a very different story in the world of groceries. The average household made nearly 17 separate shopping trips this December, delivering the busiest month for the retailers since the pre-lockdown rush in March 2020.
Kantar said Monday 23 December was the most popular shopping day of the year, with sales 30 per cent higher than any other day during 2024.
Tesco and Sainsbury’s were the main winners among food retailers at Christmas, posting sales growth of 5 per cent and 3.5 per cent respectively. while the discounter Lidl was up 6.6 per cent and Marks & Spencer 8.7 per cent, with all benefiting from a collapse in sales at Asda – which was down 5.8 per cent – the only faller among the big grocers.
Black Friday spending helped lift retail sales in late 2024 but overall sales in the final quarter of last year proved disappointing, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said in a separate report.
Total retail spending rose 3.2 per cent year-on-year in the four weeks to December 28 after a 3.3 per cent drop in November. Last month’s rise was the biggest since March, but Black Friday fell in the BRC’s December period in 2024 and in November in 2023, distorting year-on-year comparisons.
The BRC-KPMG data is not adjusted for inflation, suggesting consumers reduced the amount of wider goods they bought over Christmas.
Linda Ellett, KPMG’s UK head of consumer, retail and leisure, said: “Sales growth during the golden quarter of October to December was minimal, reflecting the ongoing careful management of many household budgets during a time when many costs remain at a heightened level compared to previous years.”
Separate figures from Barclays showed no growth in consumer card spending in December, as households cut back on essential items and pub and restaurant meals in favour of spending on experiences such as going to the cinema where spending was up 52.1 per cent.
