One in five British households intend to buy extra or special groceries for King Charles’ coronation as an extended weekend brings families and friends together, survey data from market researcher NIQ showed.
Britain’s new monarch will be crowned at Westminster Abbey in a ceremony full of pomp and pageantry on May 6.
“As we saw over the Jubilee weekend (in June 2022) shoppers celebrated with fizz and teatime treats, so there could be a demand for similar products this year despite shoppers wanting to make savings,” Mike Watkins, NIQ’s UK head of retailer and business insight, said.
He said beers, wines, and spirits were likely to be “a footfall driver” for supermarkets.
NIQ, previously known as Nielsen IQ, noted that the late Queen Elizabeth’s Jubilee week to June 4 2022 saw sales at UK supermarkets top 2.7 billion pounds ($3.4 billion), a 10 per cent increase on the year-to-date average.
The researcher also said 15 per cent of UK households intend to buy coronation memorabilia.
However, Pantheon Macroeconomics estimated Britain’s gross domestic product will fall by 0.2 per cent month-to-month in May, with all of that decline due to the lost working day on Monday May 8 for a coronation holiday.
NIQ said total UK grocery sales rose 9.7 per cent in the four weeks to April 22 year-on-year. Store visits by shoppers rose 4.5 per cent, while on line’s share of fast-moving consumer goods spending dipped to 10.8 per cent from 11.1 per cent last month.
Echoing data from rival market researcher Kantar last week, NIQ said discounters Aldi and Lidi continued to be the fastest-growing grocers over the 12 weeks to April 22, with sales up 23.6 per cent and 21.6 per cent respectively.
Sales were up 9.7 per cent at both market leader Tesco and No. 2 Sainsbury’s, while they increased 14.5 per cent at Marks & Spencer.
UK food prices soared 15.7 per cent in the year to April, the biggest increase in records going back to 2005, the British Retail Consortium said on Tuesday.
