Food sales continuing to rise, data shows

The latest BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor shows that over the three months to May, food sales increased 9.8% on a total sales basis, and 10.2% on a like-for-like sales basis.

Susan Barratt, chief executive of IGD, said: “A combination of the long-awaited improvement in the weather, the late bank holiday, and the Champions League final, all served to deliver a boost to food and drink sales at the end of May. Despite this, food and drink sales throughout the month faced persistently high comparatives with 2020, when we were in the first national lockdown.

“While its unlikely performance will exceed, or even match 2020 for months to come, sales are still significantly elevated compared to 2019, suggesting that food and drink continues to benefit from an ongoing pandemic effect.”

Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said: “Retail sales were buoyant in May thanks to the reopening of hospitality, coupled with the afterglow of non-essential retail’s own return. Pent-up demand for the in-store shopping experience, as well as the first signs of summer weather, helped retail to the strongest sales growth of the pandemic.

She added: “There is a growing sense of consumer confidence, boosted not only by the widespread uptake of vaccinations and testing, but also retailers’ own significant investment in safety measures.”