The story behind the stats

£7.1bn

 
UK supermarket sales soared in the two weeks to 25th December, exceeding previous forecasts, according to NielsenIQ. The market researcher had only predicted that sales would reach £6.8bn, up from £6.7bn in 2020. What’s more, total grocery sales for the four weeks ending 1st January were up by 1% – a notable figure, given that growth of 8% was achieved in the same period in 2020 as Brits were stocking up for Lockdown 3. 

£998m

 
Pilgrim’s Food Masters, the parent company of Richmond and Fridge Raider, has forecast the plant-based category will be worth nearly £1bn by 2026, growing a whopping 74% over the next four years. The prediction is down to growth in the flexitarian category, with 43.7% of British shoppers considering themselves to be following a flexitarian diet, compared to just 2% who are following a vegan diet, and 5.2% following a vegetarian diet.

80%

 
Farm shops were a popular destination in the 2021 festive season, and research for insurer NFU Mutual revealed that 80% of those planning to use farm shops wanted to support local businesses and the economy. Meanwhile, nine out of 10 shoppers said the friendly service they receive at farm shops was the biggest draw to visit them over the festive period, 70% said they offer fresher, better-quality produce and two-thirds of respondents said they prefer farm shops because they provide food from sustainable sources. 

3.8%

 
Kantar’s latest four-week grocery price inflation measure reached 3.8%, as prices rise on a number of fronts. Like-for-like grocery price inflation, which assumes shoppers buy exactly the same products this year as they did last year, increased again in January. Over the course of a 12-month period, the 3.8% rise in prices would add an extra £180 to the average household’s annual grocery bill. Meanwhile, the British Retail Consortium’s Helen Dickinson said, “Food prices continue to rise, especially domestic produce which have been impacted by poor harvests, labour shortages, and rising global food prices.” 

-31%

 
Footfall across all UK retail destinations in 2021 was 31.1% lower than in 2019, compared to -39.1% in 2020, according to data from Springboard. Lockdown 3 in early 2021 had a “dramatic” effect on footfall across the UK. The Delta and Omicron variants also stopped the footfall recovery in its tracks. However, local high streets benefited from the localism trend – Springboard’s UK Consumer Survey found that 57% of consumers worked at least part of the week at home in 2021. Following retail’s adaptation to the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, Springboard predicts that 2022 will be the year that retailers succeed in a Covid world. 

12.5%

 
Digital grocery orders accounted for 12.5% of all grocery spend in January as customers were more confident about visiting bricks-and-mortar shops, according to Kantar. This was almost double the pre-pandemic proportion, despite being down from its peak. In fact, online purchases were down year-on-year by 15% due to a comparison with the strict lockdown period in January 2021, Kantar said.