Food retailing a wash out in June

The wettest UK June on record has had such an impact on food retailing that, despite strong sales around the Diamond Jubilee weekend, the quarter ending 23 June was the worst early summer period for year-on-year sales growth since 2005, according to figures released by Nielsen. While sales of barbecues rose in May, the weather kept them indoors and unused.

The latest UK retailer performance figures from the global insights and information specialist reveal that despite 12.5% year-on-year growth in the week leading up to the Jubilee, sales growth at the UK’s leading supermarkets across the four weeks ending 23 June was just 3.8% compared to the same period a year ago.

Nielsen said, "The 'Summer of Events' including the Jubilee, the Euro 2012 football and the London 2012 build-up, couldn’t prevent the poorest early summer period of sales growth since 2005. There was no sustainable uplift in food sales during June despite these events and promotional discount activity being maintained at 35% of FMCG sales."

The figures show that of the top four supermarkets, Asda and Sainsbury had the strongest sales growth in the last four weeks, up 7.5% and 6.2% respectively, compared to the preceding four weeks. However, discounters Aldi and Lidl continued to outperform the market with a collective 31% growth in FMCG sales in the last 12 weeks.