Food price inflation fell again in November while the cost of a Christmas dinner is rising by less than the headline rate, according to latest figures.
Annual grocery inflation slowed to 9.1% in the four weeks to 26 November, according to research from Kantar, down from 9.7% a month earlier.
“The retailers are battling it out to offer value to consumers during this important month for trading and are doing what they can to keep prices low,” said Fraser McKevitt, Kantar's head of retail and consumer insight.
In good news for shoppers, the average cost of a frozen turkey Christmas dinner for four with all the trimmings, Christmas pudding and sparkling wine was up 1.3% at £31.71, below the headline rate, with the prices held down by cheaper Brussels sprouts and Christmas pudding than a year ago.
Kantar predicts take-home supermarket sales will surpass £13 billion for the first time ever this month, with Friday 22 December set to be the busiest day for festive grocery shopping.
McKevitt said the scene is set for “record-breaking spend through the supermarket tills this Christmas”.
The two biggest supermarkets, Tesco PLC (LSE:TSCO) and J Sainsbury PLC (LSE:SBRY), continued their fightback in the battle for market share last month, McKevitt said.
“Sainsbury’s delivered its largest market share gain in over a decade this November, taking an additional 0.4 percentage points to reach 15.6%. The last time it made this big a jump was in March 2013.”
Its growth was driven by the continued success of its own-label offer, with sales of its popular ‘Taste the Difference’ range up by a whopping 23% year on year.
Tesco also put in a strong performance to increase its market share to 27.5% following growth in sales of 8.6%, marking the fifth month in a row that Britain’s largest retailer has made gains.
Lidl was again the fastest growing grocer, boosting sales by 14.2% to take a record high share of 7.8%, while Aldi increased sales by 11.1% and now holds 9.6% of the market.
Sales at Asda and Morrisons were up by 2.6% and 3.7% respectively, giving them 13.4% and 8.7% of the market each respectively.
Co-op’s share stands at 5.8%, while Waitrose accounts for 4.4% of the market.
Frozen specialist Iceland saw an increase in sales of 3.0% and growing ahead of the market, Ocado’s sales jumped by 12.1%, holding its market share steady at 1.7%.