Kantar reports further grocery price inflation dip

Overall take-home grocery sales rose by 3.3% this month.

An early Easter didn’t dent seasonal sales, as spending on confectionery topped £100m for the first time ever in the seven days up to and including Easter Sunday.

Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Worldpanel by Kantar, said: “Higher prices have played a role in reaching that record spend figure, but the number of chocolate eggs sold in the seven days to Easter was also 3% higher this spring than last, with 37% of consumers buying one in that week.

“Hot cross buns were even more popular, enjoyed by 45% of Britons.

“The growth in confectionery also reflects a broader trend towards snacking in British diets.  Over the past decade, there’s been an increase in almost all types of snacks.

“Consumers munched on chocolate confectionery 93 million more times in the year to June 2023 than in the twelve months to June 2013.  Fruit has also bumped up the list of Britain’s snack choices – 314 million more pieces of fruit were eaten between meals in 2023 than in 2013.”

With the Easter celebrations over, both shoppers and retailers will now be looking ahead to the two bank holidays in May.

Excluding the Coronation, the weeks before the two standard long weekends in May 2023 saw an average increase in sales of £82m, representing a 3% uplift in spend.