Forget Dry January! Alcohol sales grow by 29% on last year to £234million as Britons turn to booze to cope with lockdown while sales of vegan food also rise by 23% for Veganuary
- Booze sales grew by 29% during the 12-week period to January 24, Kantar found
- Veganuary led to a 23% boost in sales of vegan products over first month of year
- Overall, shoppers spent £1bn more on food and drink in January than last year
Supermarket alcohol sales have grown by nearly a third on last year to £234million as Britons turned to the bottle to cope with lockdown – while sales of vegan food also rose during Veganuary.
Total booze sales grew by 29% during the 12-week period to January 24 compared to last year – although a 12% rise in low or alcohol-free beer showed that some people were making an effort.
Meanwhile, Veganuary led to a 23% boost in sales of vegan products over January, with 6.6million households buying vegan-specific products over the whole 12-week period – a 10% rise on a year ago.
Total booze sales grew by 29% during the 12-week period to January 24 compared to last year, while vegan food saw a 23% rise
Kantar found that in January shoppers spent £1 billion more on supermarket food and drinks compared with the same month a year ago.
Analysts said this was an acceleration on the Christmas period, as the reintroduction of national lockdown restrictions and the closure of cafes, restaurants and pubs saw eating out of the home curtailed once more.
Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said: ‘As well as the usual healthy new year’s resolutions, shoppers also looked to treat themselves in January as a way of coping with another month of restrictions.’
‘This period also captured a unique New Year’s Eve – with many people celebrating the night at home instead of going out or hosting family and friends.
‘Delivery companies such as Just Eat and Deliveroo felt the benefit as more people than usual tucked into a takeaway, and such services accounted for 6% of all online shopping trips on December 31.’
Iceland enjoyed the strongest growth of all the supermarkets with physical stores – with sales rising 21.8% in the 12-week period compared with a year earlier.
It was followed by Morrisons up 14.3%, Tesco up 12.2%, Lidl up 12.1% and Sainsbury’s up 12%.
Despite the strong growth and boost in sales from remaining an ‘essential’ retailer, as restaurants, pubs and cafes remain closed, Iceland has decided to keep its business rates holiday payments.
Morrisons, Tesco, Lidl and Sainsbury’s all agreed to repay their rates bills during the period.
Online-only supermarket Ocado was the strongest overall with sales up 36.6% compared with a year ago.
The slowest growth came from Aldi, which managed a sales boost of just 5.7%, followed by Asda at 9.9%, Waitrose at 11.3% and Co-op up 11.4%.
One year on since the first Covid-19 cases were detected Kantar said it has seen clear shopping patterns splitting down generational lines.
Kantar found that in January shoppers spent £1 billion more on supermarket food and drinks compared with the same month a year ago. Sainsbury’s saw sales rise by 12%
In the four weeks to January 24, people under 28, who are typically more open to visiting physical shops, increased spending in larger physical stores by 12%.
However, over-45s cut back spend in bigger supermarkets by 1%, turning to online shopping instead.
Online shopping hit a record market share of 14% in January, led by the oldest demographics.
Mr McKevitt explained: ‘Retired households have boosted their online spend by a staggering 229% compared with January 2020.
‘Older people are clearly getting more comfortable and proficient at ordering online and they now make up 28% of the 6.4 million who used online services in Great Britain this month.’
The data also shows parents are spending an extra £50 a month on groceries in the month of January than they did last year, to provide lunches for children unable to go to schools closed during the current English national lockdown.
Products including pasta were up 22%, chocolate spread up 42% and peanut butter up 39%.
The high growth is expected to slow as the vaccine rollout takes hold and the hospitality sector eventually reopens, whilst the end of the Brexit transition period has not seen any significant price rises currently.
Spike in alcohol deaths sees rates reach new high in the first nine months of 2020
Death rates from alcohol reached a new high in the first nine months of 2020, new figures show.
And an addiction charity has predicted that death rates could rise further still as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that there were 5,460 deaths related to ‘alcohol-specific causes’ between January and September last year.
This is a 16.4% increase compared with the same nine-month period in 2019.
The ONS said the alcohol-specific death rate in England and Wales reached its highest peak since 2001 in the first three months of the year.
Alcohol-specific death rates were highest among those aged 55 to 64 years for both men and women in 2019
The rate reached 12.8 deaths per 100,000 people between January and March and remained at this level between April and September, the ONS said.
Death rates in the second and third quarters of the year – April to June and July to September respectively – were statistically significantly higher than in any other year back to 2001, the ONS added.
The ONS also published annual death figures for 2019 across the whole of the UK.
The figures show that in 2019, there were 7,565 deaths registered in the UK that related to alcohol-specific causes, the second highest since the data time series began in 2001.
Alcohol-specific death rates were highest among those aged 55 to 64 years for both men and women in 2019.
Commenting on the figures, Julie Breslin, from the drug, alcohol and mental health charity We Are With You, said: ‘The number of people in treatment for an alcohol issue has fallen by nearly one fifth since 2013/14.
‘At the same time we know that around four out of five dependent drinkers aren’t accessing any kind of support.
‘Sadly, these statistics show the impact of what happens when the majority of people with an issue with alcohol aren’t accessing treatment or support, especially in a country with such a heavy drinking culture as the UK.’
She added: ‘While these statistics don’t include the impact of the pandemic, we’ve seen this picture become exacerbated in the past year.’