UK supermarkets saw the fastest sales growth in three and a half years over the past three months thanks to a pickup in food inflation and the strong sales in Easter eggs.
Shoppers spent out £325 million on Easter eggs this year, compared to the £294 million last year.
The UK grocery market increased by 3.7 percent in the 12 weeks to 23 April, which added nearly £1 billion in sales compared to last year.
“All 10 major retailers are in growth for the first time in three and a half years, when we last saw like-for-like grocery inflation as high as it is now. While prices do look set to rise further, the current inflation rate of 2.6% is still below the average level experienced by shoppers between 2010 and 2014.” said the head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, Fraser McKevitt.
Supermarket customers also went for a more premium Easter egg this year, spending an average of £1.65 per egg.
“This shows the underlying health of the supermarket industry is pretty good, even if we exclude the positive distortion caused by the late Easter. For example, when purely comparing Easter weeks this year and last year, sales were up 3.5%,” said Mike Watkins, Nielsen’s UK head of retailer and business insight.
This Easter period proved to be a success for all. Asda reported first sales growth since October 2014, Tesco (LON:TSCO) had growth with sales up by 1.9 percent, while Sainsbury’s (LON:SBRY) sales rose by 1.7 percent which is the biggest since June 2014.
Despite the increase in Sainsbury’s quarterly sales, the supermarket chain posted an 8.2 percent fall in annual profits due to “challenging” trading and ongoing price pressures.
Iceland, Aldi and Lidl enjoyed the fastest growth, of 9.3 percent, 18.3 percent and 17.8 percent respectively.