Shoppers flock to supermarket own-brand goods in hunt for bargains
Cost conscious British households are increasingly willing to forego the lure of a big-name brand in preference for supermarkets own-label produce, as price inflation begins to influence shopping habits.
Supermarkets
The findings are contained within Nielsen’s latest monthly supermarket sales figures which show a 5.5% jump in spending on own-label products over the past three months, close to five times the comparable 1.2% year-on-year growth figure for branded goods. As a baseline the average rise in sales across the grocery sector as a whole was 3.5%.
These figures dovetail with an increased demand for sale items which accounted for 28% of all consumer spend.
Mike Watkins, Nielsen’s UK head of retailer and business insight, said: “The return of inflation means shoppers are increasingly turning to supermarkets’ own-label products to help manage their weekly grocery spend. Own-brand sales are growing across all major food retailers but fastest at the discounters – Aldi and Lidl – and at the Co-operative, Iceland, M&S and Tesco.”
Despite the return of inflationary pressures the grocery sector has continued to enjoy growing sales, with all supermarkets posting healthy year-on-year growth in the 4 weeks to 9 September.
The findings vindicate a strategy adopted by the Big 4 retailers to double down on their own-brand offer as a means of combating the rise of the discounters.