IRI's Weekly FMCG News - w/c 9th January 2017

IRI Weekly News updateYour window on the latest trends in Packaged Groceries

Stephen Hall

Friday 13th January

Copyright © 2015 Information Resources, Inc. (IRI). Confidential and Proprietary. 2

• Superdrug reports best-ever gift range sales over Christmas• Lidl launches new quality strapline • Premium and produce drive record Aldi seasonal sales • Sales at Science in Sport jump 30%• LloydsPharmacy employees star in new marketing campaign• Morrisons posts its strongest Christmas sales figures in seven years• Majestic Wine toasts best-ever Christmas performance• Co-op hails 'outstanding' Christmas sales growth • House of Fraser notched up like-for-like sales growth of 2.7% over Christmas.• Sainsbury's delivers upbeat Christmas trading • Waitrose announces an increase in both gross and like-for-like sales • M&S' Q3 gets surprise boost from clothing • Tesco trading momentum builds with third successful Christmas • Lidl has best Christmas ever • Booths lands 'record' Christmas • Asda crowned cheapest supermarket of 2016• The Entertainer celebrates strong Christmas sales

Weekly News Summary – 9th January 2017


Superdrug reports best-ever gift range sales over ChristmasBeauty advent calendars were the most popular Christmas gift at the A.S. Watson retailer, generating more than £1m of sales

Superdrug has announced that its gift ranges outperformed over the 2016 Christmas period, generating the sub-category’s best sales to date.

The retailer’s gift ranges include limited edition ranges from Superdrug’s own brands such as Studio London and Flutter as well as blogger exclusives including Tanya Burr and Zoella.

This Christmas we concentrated on offering customers as many reasons as possible to shop at Superdrug.The most popular gift was beauty advent calendars, which took just over £1m in sales. The best-selling beauty advent calendar was the exclusive Make Up Revolution calendar.

Value was key among consumers with £1 gift sales tripling year-on-year to reach approximately £3m. In the previous year’s trading update, Superdrug sold one million £1 gift lines.

Overall successIn total, sales in stores grew 7.2% year-on-year, with colour cosmetics the most popular product purchased over the five weeks to 2 January 2017.

Gifts with purchase were popular with brands such as L’Oréal, Rimmel, MUA and Makeup Revolution drawing in sales through this tactic.

Peter Macnab, CEO A.S. Watson (Health & Beauty UK), said: "This Christmas we concentrated on offering customers as many reasons as possible to shop at Superdrug – from market-leading prices to a wealth of free gifts.

“We also added interest to our stores with more beauty and health services and this is something we look forward to building on next year. I would like to thank all our colleagues for their hard work over this busy festive period.”

Superdrug opened nine stores in December, with more than 450 new jobs created. Among these was a new location in Lincoln in the East Midlands, which offers nail and brow treatments on-site.

Online growthSuperdrug’s online sales were booming, with sales growing 47% year-on-year. Many consumers took advantage of the click-and-collect service offered; almost 40% of orders in the week before Christmas ordered online but collected in-store.

Source: Cosmetics Business 9th January 2017

http://www.cosmeticsbusiness.com/news/article_page/Superdrug_to_open_new_store_in_East_Midlands/123763


Lidl launches new quality strapline Lidl has started the new year by launching a new strapline to highlight and combine both price and quality messages.

'Big on quality, Lidl on price'The new strapline continues to uses the discounter's play on the word Lidl to mean 'little' while putting more focus than ever on quality. This reflects the direction Lidl has been heading in for a while with its series of adverts that draw on provenance and British to communicate quality and dispel preconceptions about where the discounter's food is from.

Focus on ingredients for everyday mealsA new advert to raise awareness of the campaign directly compares Lidl's products with those from supermarkets to demonstrate the value of everyday items. An example of this is how a shopper can buy a week's worth of lunch ingredients for the same price as a block of cheddar cheese.

#LidlSurprises replacedIt seems that this campaign will replace the #LidlSurprises campaign that the discounter has been running for the last few years. However, a new hastag #LidlPrices has been used on Twitter, showing how Lidl is still using social media as a way to communicate and generate conversation within its marketing plans.

Source: IGD 9th January 2017


Premium and produce drive record Aldi seasonal sales Aldi has revealed record sales over the Christmas period, driven by premium private label brand Specially Selected and the discounter's Super 6 fruit and veg promotion.

Sales up 15% vs 2015 UK sales in December 2016 were more than 15% up on the previous December, according to Aldi, however no like-for-like sales have been disclosed. Sales of the discounter's Specially Selected range increased by 27%. Within the range, top-selling products included Argentinean Malbec wine, minced pies, and a 30 day aged roasting joint. This year, Aldi predicts that Specially Selected will exceed £750m, just over ten years since its launch.

'Best ever Christmas: Specially Selected surpassed expectations'Talking about the seasonal performance, chief executive Matthew Barnes has said: "The people of Britain were very clear on what they wanted on their dinner tables this Christmas - unbeatable value premium-quality products and the lowest prices on festive essentials. Sales of our premium specially selected range in particular surpassed expectations - a clear sign that more and more people are realising they can treat their families to products of a quality comparable to Waitrose and M&S at a fraction of the price by shopping with Aldi.“

Reduced Super 6 drives performanceAlong with Specially Selected, Aldi's flagship Super 6 promotion drove sales in the two weeks before Christmas with essential fruit and vegetables reduced to 19p. This resulted in the volume sales of 4.5m packs of carrots, 2m packs of brussel sprouts and 2m packs of parsnips. Shoppers also flocked to Aldi for wine and fizz in December with 13.5m bottles sold, including 2m bottles of Prosecco.



Sales At Science In Sport Jump 30%Sports nutrition firm Science in Sport (SiS) has revealed another strong year of growth, supported by online and overseas expansion, as well as its increasing presence in the grocery channel.

The company, which develops, manufactures and markets sports nutrition products for athletes and sports enthusiasts, saw its sales jump 30% to £12.24m in the 12 months to 31 December 2016.

It said that investment in its scienceinsport.com platform and operations resulted in a doubling of direct sales year-on-year. Third-party online retailers and the grocery channel also delivered “robust growth”, while it made healthy distribution gains in the Independent channel.

Development of international markets remained a key focus for the business during the year. Its new Australian operation was said to have delivered sales ahead of plan, whilst investment was made in e-commerce websites in the US, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands in the second half of the year. The company stated that the US and Italian markets will be a particular growth focus during 2017.

SiS added that together with capital investment in its Nelson site in Lancashire, production line efficiencies reached new highs during the year, underpinning an improvement in gross margin despite Q4 currency related price increases. It said the outlook for margins remains positive, despite some slight increases in input costs.

Source: NamNews 9th January 2017


LloydsPharmacy employees star in new marketing campaignThe faces of the ‘Made for you’ campaign will feature on posters and point of sale materials throughout 2017 in around 1800 LloydsPharmacy stores.

LloydsPharmacy marketing manager Robert Fox explained: “We want to offer customers a quality alternative to branded products and whether it’s a basic pack of paracetamol or a blood pressure monitor, our range of over 250 items supports customers with their everyday health needs. The quality of our products underpins everything we do and our motto is ‘we would never sell a product that we wouldn’t use ourselves’. So, what better way to demonstrate this than by using some of our colleagues that use our own brand?”

Employees featured in the final marketing materials include staff from across the Celesio UK family of brands including Foram Shah a pharmacist from LloydsPharmacy in Walsall and Laura Bennett, a pharmacy supervisor from LloydsPharmacy in Bridgend.

Those chosen to take part in the campaign were selected following a casting call for a photo shoot which took place at the end of November

Source: Retail Bulletin 9th January 2017


Morrisons achieves impressive Christmas trading Morrisons has released an impressive set of Christmas trading figures by delivering its strongest performance for seven years.

Strong growth in LFL salesLFL sales grew by 2.9% (excluding fuel) in the nine weeks to January 1st; including fuel sales were up by 4.7%. This is a significant step up from Q3's +1.6% result and is against a +0.2% comparative from Christmas 2015. Total sales were also up, by 2.0% excluding fuel or 4.0% including fuel, despite the continuing impact of store closures.

Broad-based growthSeveral factors have contributed to Morrisons growth with the retailer highlighting success in fresh produce, BWS, the newly re-introduced "Best" premium own brand range and Nutmeg clothing offer, as well as improved service standards in-store. Together these investments drove LFL transactions by 5.2% over the nine week period (excluding online, which delivered its best ever sales week during the period).

Success with The BestMorrisons Best range has proved popular with customers, with over half of customer baskets including at least one item from the range. 100 Christmas Best lines were launched to inspire festive shoppers, in addition to the 470 launched in the autumn, providing more choice for shoppers looking to trade up.

New ordering system boosts availabilityMorrisons has also benefited from the rollout of a new automated ordering system to all stores to grocery and many fresh categories. The capital light system uses cloud based technology and store-specific historic sales data to forecast stock requirements. This improved availability while also keeping stock levels down. Over half of sales went through the new system.



Christmas delivers for GB grocery market New figures reveal a stronger than expected performance from the GB grocery market over the crucial Christmas period. Figures from Kantar Worldpanel indicate record sales and growth of 1.8%, the fastest rate since June 2014 with shoppers spending an additional £480m on last year. The market was also boosted by the return of inflation, with prices up 0.2% year-on-year, bringing to an end 30 consecutive periods of falling prices. The timing of Christmas Eve on a Saturday was also helpful, giving shoppers more time to make purchases just before Christmas Day though December 23rd remained the busiest shopping day of the year.

Tesco leads Big Four market share gainTrading strategies paid off for the Big Four which collectively grew their market share for the first time since 2014. Together, their share increased by 0.1% to 71.4% of the market. Tesco delivered the fastest growth with sales up 1.3%, helped by a strong performance in fresh food, with Morrisons following close behind on +1.2%, reflecting its strongest trading performance for seven years -see story. There was better news also for Asda which reported a much slower rate of sales decline -2.4%, compared with -4.7% for the previous period. Sainsbury's, which reports its Christmas results tomorrow, also saw an improvement its position, with sales down by just 0.1%, compared to -0.6% previously.

Discounter growth picks upDespite improved sales at the Big Four, discounters also experienced improved stronger trading, with both Aldi and Lidl delivering impressive results. Aldi's growth picked up from 10.0% to 11.8% and Lidl from 5.7% to 7.5%, helped by the launch of popular Christmas ranges Iceland also continued its strong run with sales up 9.6%, beating its 8.6% growth last month.


http://retailanalysis.igd.com/Hub.aspx?id=23&tid=3&nid=16148


Majestic Wine Toasts Best-Ever Christmas PerformanceAfter a difficult year amid a major shake of the business, Majestic Wine received a much-needed sales boost during the all-important Christmas trading period, when it generates over 30% of its annual turnover.

In the 10 week period to 2 January 2017, the retailer’s total sales increased 12.4%. Its retail operation had its biggest ever Christmas with like-for-like sales increasing 7.5%, against 7.3% growth recorded in the same period last year. The group said that approximately 0.5% of the growth was one-off due to transfer of sales from closed stores.

Sales at Majestic Commercial fell 0.8%, although its Naked Wine operation saw sales jump 29.9% and Lay & Wheeler recorded a 62.3% increase.

The group said that its gross margin percentage was around 1 percentage point lower, versus the same period in the prior year, due to a combination of accelerated acquisition of new customers and the need to remain competitive in a heavily discounted UK market still coming to terms with recent currency movements. Majestic added that it had remained focused on cost control and so profits were still expected to be in line with market expectations.

Rowan Gormley, Chief Executive, commented: “Delivering strong like for likes in a tough market is a tribute to the hard work that our people put in – right across the business. It is also particularly pleasing that both Naked Wines and Majestic Commercial traded in line with expectations and Lay & Wheeler has maintained its strong growth.

“Our transformation plan is working and we remain on track to achieve our £500m sales goal. We said that we would be better prepared for Christmas than ever – and the numbers show that we did what we said we would do.

“At this stage we are not predicting a change to long term margin expectations, but we need to retain flexibility to compete in a competitive market.”



Co-op hails 'outstanding' Christmas sales growth The Co-op has hailed an “outstanding” Christmas after increased availability and the success of its own-label ranges drove sales. Co-op like-for-like sales rose 3.5% in the three weeks to December 31

The mutual registered a 3.5% uplift in like-for-like sales during the three weeks ending December 31, driven by “better than ever” availability on its core product lines.

The Co-op said there were 300,000 fewer gaps on shelves across its c-store estate compared with the same period last year.

It recorded its busiest day on Christmas Eve, as shoppers made the final touches to their Christmas dinners or stocked up on party food and drink.

In an internal letter sent to staff, seen by Retail Week, Co-op retail boss Steve Murrells highlighted the role of its logistics teams, which fulfilled more Christmas deliveries on time than ever before.

The Co-op also praised the impact of its private-label proposition, with its own-brand Prosecco, buttercrust mince pies and Amaretto yule log proving popular with shoppers.

Murrells said: “The focus on convenience and an ever-stronger local supermarket offer resulted in a strong trading period. Our strategy of serving up ‘good food, which does good’, and our ever-improving store estate, is attracting shoppers.“The launch of membership earlier in the year gave our members and customers a really compelling reason to choose us and all the hard work on improving our availability and our product range was already paying off.”

In the note to staff, Murrells added that the Co-op’s Christmas advert had struck a chord with consumers during the festive season and drove more shoppers into stores.

“Our ad campaign was well received, with viewers appreciating the community spirit it portrayed and the idea of ‘good food that does so much more’,” Murrells said.

“In a world full of schmaltzy CGI competitor adverts, it stood out as authentic and a true example of the Co-op difference.”

Sources: Retail Week 10th January 2017

https://www.retail-week.com/companies/co-operative-group

https://www.retail-week.com/sectors/grocery/watch-co-op-christmas-ad-puts-the-community-first/7016417.article


House of Fraser notched up like-for-like sales growth of 2.7% over Christmas.The department store group said cash gross margins were up 1% in the six weeks to December 31.

The retailer’s bosses believe the coming year will be challenging, but that they have firm foundations in place to ensure success.

House of Fraser reported that total sales also rise by 2.7% during its six-day Black Friday promotion, when online accounted for 41% of sales.

In the two weeks to December 31, House of Fraser “delivered record sales figures”.

House of Fraser chief executive Nigel Oddy said: “We are very pleased to report a solid overall performance this Christmas, driven in part by very strong online demand over Black Friday and good Boxing Day week sales.

“In addition, we are delighted by the results achieved in our recently refurbished stores, which have consistently appeared among our top performing stores over the Christmas period.

“Our recent performance is evidence that our multichannel proposition, combined with the huge breadth of products and brands we provide, is working well for our customers.”

House of Fraser chairman Frank Slevin, said: “This is a good performance during our key trading period, having been supported by the investment we have made in our stores, our people and our core infrastructure over the last two years.“We commenced laying the foundations for the transformation of the business in 2016 in anticipation of a challenging retail environment, and as we look forward to 2017 and beyond we must continue to adapt as the retail sector evolves.“With this strong trading performance, we remain confident that we will continue to deliver a compelling proposition for our customers.”

Source: Retail Week 11th January 2017

https://www.retail-week.com/companies/house-of-fraser


Sainsbury's delivers upbeat Christmas trading Sainsbury's has reported encouraging results for the festive period with retail LFL sales turning positive for the first time in three quarters in its core business and strong growth from Argos.

Record Christmas week lifts Sainsbury'sThe UK's second largest grocer achieved ex-fuel retail LFL growth of +0.1% in the 15 weeks to January 7th, a marked improvement on Q2's -1.1% result, and its first quarter of positive LFL growth since Q4 2015/16. The outcome was lifted by a record Christmas week when 30m customer transactions took place. Total volume growth was positive across all channels (though LFL volumes were flat).

Continuing focus on quality and valueCentral to Sainsbury's strategy is its distinctive approach to investing in quality and value. Range investments meant that this Christmas 25% of Sainsbury's brand food was new or improved compared to two years ago, and sales of the Taste the Difference party range were up 50% year-on-year. At the same time the price of a typical basket was down 14% on two years ago as Sainsbury's has used savings from its ending of multi-buys to fund lower base prices.

Strong growth from ArgosThe newly acquired Argos business performed particularly strongly with LFL sales up 4.0% and total sales up +4.1%, reflecting strong trading through both the Christmas and Black Friday periods, especially across technology categories. The group also benefited from the opening of Argos digital stores at a growing number of Sainsbury's supermarkets which provided a convenient one stop solution for festive shoppers.

Online growth acceleratesOnline growth at Sainsbury's picked up to over 9%, a welcome response to recent investments in its click & collect rollout programme and extra capacity in London, supported by a strong operational performance. This result was achieved without heavy vouchering activity to acquire new customers, and with uptake of its Delivery Pass increasing. Online, particularly the Fast Track delivery proposition, was also a crucial ingredient to Argos's trading, with online sales up 13% to account for 57% of its total.

Continuing growth in convenienceSainsbury's convenience business grew by 6%, in line with the result from H1. This growth was largely driven by new space, including six new trial stores through the Eurogarages partnership, though like-for-likes were also positive, lifted by recent launch of its 'On the go' food-for-now concept.



Waitrose announces an increase in both gross and like-for-like sales John Lewis Partnership releases financial statement for the six weeks of Christmas trading (to Saturday 31 December).

Sales up in all formatsGross sales (excluding fuel) were up 4.8% to £914.9m, and up 2.8% on a like-for-like basis. Little Waitrose showed an even stronger performance with the c-store format reporting sales up 13.1% and like-for-like sales up 4.8%. Online sales were up 0.8% but the sales of John Lewis orders collected in Waitrose stores was up 18.5% on last year.The last two weeks of this period had very distorted sales due to the timing of when Christmas day fell. Week ending 24th December has sales up 31.1% but had two extra trading days due to Christmas Day and Boxing Day falling into the equivalent week last year. The following week saw total sales down 12.5% as the two non trading days fell into this week.

Premium and entertaining big drivers of increase.Demand for premium items drove sales with Waitrose 1, its 'best in class' range launched in April last year seeing an uplift of 21.4%. Hospitality provided another key area of growth with sales up 4.9% during the six week period and party food seeing an uplift of 14.0% during the last two weeks of the year.This Christmas also saw more people switching from the traditional items with alternatives to turkey causing meat sales to grow overall as duck (up 13%), beef (up 6%) and slow cooked meats (rocketing by 63%). Champagne sales did rise 6% in those two weeks but English sparkling wine was up a glass raising 65%.

Looking aheadContinuing pressures within the grocery sector mean retailers are looking to accelerate investment and innovation and Waitrose will be no exception to this. Rob Collins, Waitrose managing director commented recently “I don’t think we are about being a supermarket any longer. I think increasingly we are going to be a food and food service retailer,” Collins states. He also sees opportunities to work closer with stablemate John Lewis. “Paula Nickolds and I are already working very closely together on lots of things where we see opportunities to connect the two businesses. From a customer perspective, I’m very keen to move forward with click and collect, for example”.



M&S' Q3 gets surprise boost from clothing Reporting its Q3 trading performance for 13 weeks to 31 December Marks & Spencer has announced total Groups sales up 5.9%, with its UK business up 4.5%, under-pinned by like-for-like sales of +1.9%. Within the UK it was (for once) sales in Clothing and Home categories that drove the performance, benefiting from better ranges and availability in the crucial Christmas trading period.

Clothing gained from increase in full price salesAlong with operational improvements, M&S notably adjusted its sales strategy in non-food for the period. Above all it substantially reduced sales on promotion over the 13 weeks, and executed many fewer category promotions, especially over the Black Friday weekend. With one fewer clearance event than in Q3 2015, the overall impact was a significant improvement in full price sales.

Limited gains from 'late' Christmas for FoodWhile total sales in its UK Food division were up 5.6%, boosted by on-going expansion of the Simply Food store format, like-for-like sales were just 0.6%. Moreover, timing effects on the reporting period are estimated to have boosted this figure to the extent of c0.3 percentage points, indicating that the real underlying growth was weaker than 0.6%. Typically a favourite for trading-up at Christmas, supported with its order and collect service for festive food, this performance for M&S Food suggests it did not benefit as much as some of its competitors from the record sector sales in the run-in to the holiday period.

Commenting on M&S' Food performance, Steve Rowe, Chief Executive said:"The quarter was characterised by a slightly later build to peak as a result of Christmas Day falling on a Sunday. We continue to grow market share, with customers appreciating the quality, innovation and newness that distinguitsh our food. Our Simply Food store pipeline remains strong (and) new Simply Food stores continue to perform well."



Tesco trading momentum builds with third successful Christmas Tesco has reported impressive figures for its third quarter and Christmas trading periods, with strengthening growth in the UK and underlying improvements in many international territories. The results mean that Tesco now expects it could deliver full year operating profits slightly ahead of the consensus forecast of £1.2bn.

Encouraging UK Christmas resultTesco's Christmas result is a considerable achievement against a +1.3% comparative from 2015 when it was the best performer of the major multiples. It means Tesco has now delivered eight consecutive quarters of volume growth and three successful Christmases. The result was broad-based with a positive LFL sales growth across all formats and came despite further price cutting. Tesco's basket of goods is now 7% cheaper than September 2014, compared with -6% at the half year. The result is also testament to the success of initiative to improve service levels. Availability in the peak Christmas week was up 1% on last year.

Investments in food pay offAt the heart of Tesco trading success was good growth from its seasonal offering, particularly core Christmas ranges and fresh lines, including a 24% increase in party food sales and an 18% increase in Free From, a range that was specifically highlighted in Christmas TV ads. Overall LFL food sales were up +1.3%, ahead of the market, lifted by Tesco's much increased focus on quality and innovation, and also by affordability through its farm brands.

Non-food impacted by axing of Clubcard BoostTesco calculates that it its UK LFL would have been 0.8% higher had it not scrapped its Clubcard Boost promotion. While an effective sales driver, this carried considerable costs and ending it has enabled Tesco to invest in value across its proposition. Ending Boost resulted in lower non-food sales, though within the category there were some notable successes, particularly clothing (+4.3%, lifted by a 40% gain in seasonal clothing) and toys (+8.5%, which benefited from a price checking initiative against 8,000 lines at Sainsbury's owned Argos).

Progress in international marketsOverall international sales were down 0.1% over the 19 week period with a similar performance in Europe and Asia. In Europe, Tesco experienced good third quarter growth in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia which helped to offset the impact of intense competitive activity in Poland. In Ireland, LFL sales rose by 0.1% over the 19 week period as investments in lower prices, particularly over the Christmas period, delivered strong volume growth and increased customer transactions. In Asia, trading was weakened by a subdued consumer mood following the death of the king of Thailand.



Lidl has best Christmas ever The British arm of German discount supermarket Lidl achieved its most successful Christmas trading period ever, with sales up 10% on a year-on-year basis.

Success achieved by highlighting qualityThe success has partly been associated with aTwitter campaign that saw the price of the supermarket's luxury lobster drop to GBP2.99, resulting in 40,000 sales in one day. In total the discounter reportedly sold around 200,000 lobsters over the Christmas period.

Lidl made a concerted effort to attract more affluent shoppers at Christmas, as it also reduced the price of mini stollen, Serrano ham and silver-topped Christmas puddings, all part of its social media campaign to highlight quality products at a reduced price.

Lidl reported that shoppers also purchased more festive favourites, with sales of carrots, parsnips, sprouts and potatoes rising by 60%, and turkey sales increased by 40%.

A growing business The strong performance helped Lidl lift its market share to 4.4% in the three months to 1 January, up from 4.2% the year before, according to data from Kantar Worldpanel.

Christian Hartnagel, Lidl chief executive, said: ‘It's incredibly encouraging that, during this highly competitive time, we have achieved our most successful festive trading period ever.‘We are unwaveringly committed to helping customers save as much money as possible.‘We also remain fully committed to our ongoing expansion plans, which will see the opening of up to 50 new stores next year, along with two new regional distribution centres, creating thousands of new jobs up and down the country.’


http://retailanalysis.igd.com/Hub.aspx?id=13&tid=1&rid=65&nid=16010

http://retailanalysis.igd.com/Hub.aspx?id=13&tid=1&rid=65&nid=16010


Booths lands 'record' Christmas North-west regional premium supermarket chain Booths has revealed solid growth in the three weeks to 7th January, with total sales up 1.8%. The period included the retailer's biggest ever trading week in the run up to Christmas with over £10m sales in the seven days ending 24 December.

Like-for-likes stronger than total growthFollowing 2015, when floods closed some stores, sales in the stores open for trade in both years performed even better, with Booths posting a like-for-like uplift of 2.6%. Key destination categories such as beers, wines and spirits especially, saw high levels of outperformance. Champagne sales were up by 28%, craft ales by 29%, artisan gin by 30% and Port was up by 12%.

Order and collect/delivery up 6.9%While not operating a year round ordering service, Booths has provided this for customers wanting to reserve their festive food at Christmas-time in the last few years. Targeting the trend for shoppers to trade-up to premium stores at Christmas, the strategy has paid dividends for the business. Supported with its annual seasonal 'Great Northern Christmas Book', showcasing festive specialities, Booths has successfully enhanced its reputation as a key part of Christmas shopping for food and drink both in its region and beyond.

Success with 'The Great Christmas Dinner'In the 2016, for the first time, Booths also sought to bring a value perspective to its festive offer, with a special 'meal deal', offering everything needed to create a Christmas dinner for eight people; all for £100. Providing both value and a convenient solution for shoppers, the deal was a sell-out.



Asda Crowned Cheapest Supermarket Of 2016Whilst being the worst performer amongst the big four supermarkets in terms of sales growth last year, figures released today show that Asda actually offered shoppers the best value for branded goods.

Using data from price comparison website MySupermarket, consumer watchdog Which? found that a basket of 80 popular branded items at Asda cost on average £154.14 across the year. Morrisons was next cheapest (£160.19) ahead of Sainsbury’s (£162.11), Tesco (£164.37), and Waitrose (£172.27).

In addition to the yearly comparison, researchers also looked at the total cost of the basket each month and found that Asda was consistently cheaper, coming top in 11 out of 12 months. February was the exception, when Morrisons bumped it into second place. Aldi and Lidl were not included as they do not sell enough of the branded products in the basket.

Richard Headland, Which? magazine editor, said: “With increasing concern over rising food prices, our research shows that some supermarkets are consistently cheaper than others for popular branded items. It could be worth switching supermarkets, or shopping around, if you want to trim your shopping bill.”

Asda endured a tough 2016, and whilst the chain has yet to give an update on its performance over Christmas, analysts are expecting it to report another period of falling sales. However, data from Kantar Worldpanel released earlier this week suggested that Asda’s performance may have started to improve. Whilst its sales in the 12 weeks ending 1 January, were down by 2.4%, the figure was considerable improvement on the 4.7% decline reported the previous month.



The Entertainer celebrates strong Christmas salesIn the five weeks to 31 December, total sales climbed by 13.5% while like-for like sales rose by 2.6%. The increase marked the fifth consecutive year of like-for-like growth for the retailer.

Friday 23 December was the busiest trading day in the period.

Gary Grant, founder and managing director of The Entertainer, said: “Considering the increase in promotional pressure in the toy category and the later start to the consumer buying period, we’re delighted with this result.

“2016 was a great year for The Entertainer, we ended the year with 15 new store openings in the UK inclusive of our first store in Northern Ireland, further investment into TV advertising and the expansion of our international operation into Cyprus, all designed to underpin our future growth aspirations.”

The performance of TheToyShop.com was also strong with sales up 31.7% year-on-year.

Source: Retail Bulletin 13th January 2017


Kantar Worldpanel data indicates the GB grocery market grew by 1.8% over the festive period, the fastest rate since June 2014, with shoppers spending an additional £480m on last year. The market was also boosted by the return of inflation, with prices up 0.2% year-on-year, bringing to an end 30 consecutive periods of falling prices. The timing of Christmas Eve on a Saturday was also helpful, giving shoppers more time to make purchases just before Christmas Day though December 23rd remained the busiest shopping day of the year.

Aldi Iceland Lidl Waitrose Co-op Tesco Morrisons Sainsbury's Asda-4

-2

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

1411.8

9.6

7.5

3.0 2.41.3 1.2

-0.1

-2.4

Implied y-o-y sales growth and share of market

GB Market Shares – January 2017

Sources: IGD/Kantar

28.2

16.7

15.5

10.9

6.0

6.0

5.34.4

2.34.6


Q1 2013

Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 2014

Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 2015

Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 2016

Q2 Q3 Q4-8

-6

-4

-2

0

2

4

Asda M&S Morrisons Sainsbury's Tesco

%

Sources: IGD/Retailer

Quarterly LFLs

IRI Weekly News updateYour window on the latest trends in Packaged Groceries

Stephen Hall

Friday 13th January

IRI's Weekly FMCG News - w/c 9th January 2017

Food

Transcript of IRI's Weekly FMCG News - w/c 9th January 2017