Spending Dam Finally Bursts the Week Before Christmas as UK Supermarkets Experience £4Billion Surge in Seven Days

Contact: Neil Beston, Tel: 020 3103 3959

London, Fri 6 Jan 2012 – Supermarkets finally experienced significant sales growths in the final seven days of pre-Christmas trading as shoppers, who’d held back earlier in December, freed up their spending, according to the latest retailer performance figures released this afternoon by analysts Nielsen.

Headline value growth at the UK’s grocery multiples for the four weeks to 24 December was a surprisingly strong +5.5 percent. But while this was down a little on the corresponding four-week period in 2010, it was a considerable improvement on the +2.2 percent for the preceding four weeks in November 2011.

Nielsen senior manager for retailer services Mike Watkins explains: “The initial delay in spending in early December, followed by a £4billion surge in sales in the final week before Christmas, made this one of the biggest pre-Christmas weeks for UK food retailers. Very cold weather in the week before Christmas 2010 amplified growths in 2011.

“All categories benefited with sales of Soft Drinks (+11%), Crisps/Snacks (+11%) and Deli/Cheese/Meats (+8%) showing the strongest growth. General Merchandise (+5%) also bounced back with supermarkets gaining share from the non-food channel, as shoppers maximised their more-limited discretionary spend by taking advantage of extended non-food ranges and promotions at the Big-4 supermarkets.”

Asda had a fine December with sales up 10.7 percent on last year - fuelled by store conversions and a growth in shopper penetration across all stores – which kept its performance ahead of Waitrose (sales up +8.8%), Sainsbury (+6.7%) and Morrisons (+5.9% ).

But the overall winner this Christmas was Aldi, with stellar growths of more than 40 percent in December. A flood of new shoppers were persuaded through the discounter’s doors by award-winning advertising, including the ‘most-liked TV ad of 2011’. http://bit.ly/wMsPqR

Watkins again: “Overall, this was a disloyal Christmas, with retailers experiencing more shopper visits and more ‘new’ shoppers than last year, as consumers shopped around for choice and range as well as the best deals and deepest promotions. It was a strong end to the year with underlying unit (volume) sales growths back into positive territory (+0.9%) for the first time since the end of May.”

The figures in the table are based on 12 weeks sales through to 24 Dec 2011 compared with the same 12 week period in 2010. Source: Nielsen Total Till, Nielsen Homescan

About Nielsen Homescan Total Till:
Unless otherwise stated, data is based on all purchases, bar-coded and non bar-coded, brought back into the home from any outlet by an in-home scanning panel of more than 14,500 households. Total spend includes all items stocked by any outlet, including grocery, general merchandise and clothing.

About Nielsen
Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence, mobile measurement, trade shows and related properties. Nielsen has a presence in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA and Diemen, the Netherlands. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.