by James Davey
LONDON (Reuters) – Prices in Britain’s grocery stores rose again in March to a record high, further reducing the purchasing power of consumers struggling with the rising cost of living, according to industry data released on Tuesday.
Over the four weeks to March 19, inflation in food jumped 17.5% over one year with an acceleration in prices, particularly for eggs, milk and cheese, said the research firm Kantar.
Without changing consumption habits, this represents an increase of 837 pounds (951.5 euros) per year on the bill of British households, calculates Kantar.
“This is still bad news for British citizens, who are experiencing double-digit food price inflation for the ninth month,” said Fraser McKevitt, director of consumption and distribution at Kantar.
Official data released last week showed headline consumer price inflation in Britain hit 10.4% in February, while that for food and soft drinks came in at 18 .0%, the highest rate since 1977.
Separate data released on Tuesday by the British Retail Consortium and research firm NielsenIQ shows soaring food prices pushed headline inflation in UK stores in March to its highest level in at least 18 years.
Fraser McKevitt says the price hike is not yet weighing on store traffic, which has remained up this month, but consumers are stepping up their efforts to find the best value for money.
“When consumers aren’t happy with one store’s prices, they go elsewhere,” he said, noting that they’ve visited an average of three or more of the top ten stores in one store. given month. Consumers have also made increased use of loyalty cards and other promotional programs. They also bought more private label products, sales of which rose 15.8% in March year on year.
Sales of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers rose 32%, 26% and 21%, respectively, in the basket of customers of independent food stores, as consumers did not find these products in large chains.
Over the 12 weeks to March 19, independent stores increased their total sales by 8.6%.
Among the supermarket chains, Lidl recorded the fastest growth with sales up 25.8% in the 12 weeks to March 19, while those of its competitor Aldi rose 25.4%, giving it now enables it to have a market share of 9.9%.
(Reporting James Davey; Claude Chendjou, editing by Kate Entringer)
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