UK grocery inflation edges higher, says Kantar

(Corrects paragraph 7 after Kantar corrected its release to state Tesco achieved its largest share since December 2017, not its largest annual share gain this period since December 2017)

LONDON (Reuters) -British shoppers faced increased pressure on their budgets last month after grocery price inflation edged higher, industry data showed on Tuesday.

Market researcher Kantar said annual grocery price inflation was 2.0% in the four weeks to Sept. 29, having been 1.7% in the previous four-week period.

The data showed prices are rising fastest in products such as chilled soft drinks, chocolate confectionery and skin care, while falling fastest in household paper products, dog food and cat food.

Official data published last month showed overall UK inflation stayed at 2.2% in August. Data for September will be published Oct. 16, the last update before the new Labour government’s Oct. 30 budget statement.

Kantar’s data showed UK grocery sales rose 2.0% in value terms over the four week period year-on-year, versus 3.0% in last month’s report.

Over the 12 weeks to Sept. 29 online supermarket Ocado was again the fastest growing grocer with sales up 10% year-on-year, taking its market share to 1.8%.

Industry leader Tesco saw sales growth of 5.2% and its market share rose 60 basis points to hit 28.0%, its largest share since December 2017.

Sales at No. 2 Sainsbury’s rose 5.1% but No. 3 Asda was again the laggard, with its sales down 5.1% and it lost 1.1 percentage points of market share year-on-year.

Kantar said discounters Aldi and Lidl saw sales growth of 1.8% and 8.8% respectively.

(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Sachin Ravikumar)