UK supermarkets have had their best Christmas since 2019, according to data released by Kantar for the four weeks leading up to 24 December.

The number of shopping trips to the supermarket increased to 488m, the highest since 2019 and 12m more than for the same period in 2022.

Supermarket sales reached a record £13.7bn (€15.7bn) and the value of grocery sales increased by 7%.

While a large chunk of this is caused by inflation, the number of items purchased also increased by 2%.

Kantar reported that the Friday before Christmas - 22 December - was the big shopping day in Britain, with 25m trips made to the stores and shoppers spent £803m (€923m) in stores, which is 85% more than the average Friday over the rest of 2023.

As for what shoppers were buying, products for the traditional Christmas meal performed particularly well.

More parsnips were bought, with sales volumes up 12%, sales of sprouts increased by 9% and potato sales were also up with an increase of 8%. Volumes of the traditional Christmas meats – turkey, hams, sausages and pigs in blankets - were up by 6%.

Kantar also reported that grocery price inflation fell by a record amount in December to 6.7%, the lowest level since April 2022.

Phelim O’Neill