UK grocery inflation eases in boost to shoppers

By James Davey

LONDON, July 21 (Reuters) - British grocery inflation slowed to its lowest rate since December 2024 in July, researcher Worldpanel by Numerator said on Tuesday, offering some relief to households grappling with the high cost of living.

Like-for-like grocery inflation was 2.6% in the four weeks to July 12, according to Worldpanel, easing from 3.0% in last month's report.

Britain's new Prime Minister Andy Burnham has pledged to unveil new measures to ease everyday pressures on Britons. On Tuesday he cut taxes on electricity bills from October.

The Worldpanel data is the most up-to-date snapshot of UK consumer behaviour and provides an early indication of food pricing pressures in July.

Official inflation data for June will be published on Wednesday.

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The Worldpanel data showed UK grocery sales increased 3.3% over the four weeks year-on-year, helped by hot weather and the soccer World Cup.

Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Worldpanel, said that while easing price rises is welcome news to shoppers, the annual bill tells a fuller story.

"The average household spent £5,530 ($7,425) on groceries over the past twelve months to July, up £156 on the same period last year - a reminder that even as the rate of inflation cools, the cumulative cost of the weekly shop keeps climbing," he said.

Worldpanel said that over the 12 weeks to July 12, industry leader Tesco's sales rose 1.7% year-on-year and for the second report in a row its market share edged lower. Sales at number two player Sainsbury's rose 2.8%.

Discounter Lidl GB remained the fastest growing bricks-and-mortar grocer in the researcher's data set, with sales up 8.6%, while online supermarket Ocado remained the fastest growing overall, with a 14.1% increase.

While sales at number three player Asda fell 1.1%, this was an improvement on last month's report.

UK supermarkets' market share and sales growth (%)

Market share Market % change in

12 weeks to share 12 sales

July 12 2026 weeks to year-on-yea

July 13 r

2025

Tesco 27.9 28.1 1.7

Sainsbury's 15.2 15.1 2.8

Asda 11.5 11.9 -1.1

Aldi 10.8 11.0 0.7

Lidl 8.8 8.3 8.6

Morrisons 8.5 8.4 3.5

Co-operative 5.4 5.2 5.6

Waitrose 4.4 4.4 2.5

Iceland 2.2 2.2 2.3

Ocado 2.2 2.0 14.1

Source: Worldpanel by Numerator

($1 = 0.7448 pounds)

(Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Paul Sandle)