By James Davey
LONDON, May 27 (Reuters) – British grocery inflation eased to 3.1% in the four weeks to May 17, its slowest rate of increase since December 2024, researcher Worldpanel by Numerator said on Wednesday, with the full impact of the Iran conflict yet to reach supermarket prices.
Grocery inflation was 3.8% in last month’s report.
The data showed UK grocery sales increased 1.5% over the four weeks year-on-year, indicating shoppers bought fewer goods.
The Worldpanel data is the most up-to-date snapshot of UK consumer behaviour and provides an early indication of food pricing pressures in May ahead of official UK inflation data on June 17.
It said prices were rising fastest in products such as chocolate confectionery and fresh unprocessed fish, and falling fastest in butter and spreads, sugar confectionery and household paper.
UK GOVERNMENT RETREAT FROM PRICE CAPS
Last week, Britain’s finance ministry backed away from a proposal for price caps on key products, such as eggs, bread and milk, following a furious response from retailers.
Seeking to ease pressure on household budgets, the government does plan to reduce import tariffs on over 100 food products.
Worldpanel said shoppers leant on grocers’ promotions to keep their bills down, with 30.3% of sales including a deal over the four weeks, up from 28.4% a year ago.
Tesco, Britain’s biggest food retailer, said in April it “did not recognise” a Food and Drink Federation warning that food prices will be rising by almost 10% by December.
The Bank of England said that businesses it had spoken to last month expected food price inflation to reach 6-7% later this year.
Britain’s official rate of headline inflation eased to 2.8%in April, with food at 3.0%.
Worldpanel said that over the 12 weeks to May 17, Tesco and number two player Sainsbury’s continued to win market share.
Discounter Lidl GB remained the fastest growing bricks-and-mortar grocer, overtaking Morrisons to be Britain’s fifth largest. Online supermarket Ocado remained the fastest growing overall.
Number three player Asda continued to lose share.
UK supermarkets’ market share and sales growth (%)
Market share Market % change in
12 weeks to share 12 sales
May 17 2026 weeks to (year-on-ye
May 18 2025 ar)
Tesco 28.2 27.9 3.2
Sainsbury’s 15.2 15.1 3.1
Asda 11.5 12.1 -3.0
Aldi 10.8 11.0 0.6
Lidl 8.6 8.1 8.8
Morrisons 8.3 8.4 1.3
Co-operative 5.1 5.2 -0.1
Waitrose 4.5 4.5 3.0
Iceland 2.2 2.3 1.7
Ocado 2.1 2.0 10.2
Source: Worldpanel by Numerator
(Reporting by James Davey)
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