Advertising surge by UK supermarkets leads to strong Christmas sales
Contact: Neil Beston, Tel: 020 3103 3959
LONDON 16 January 2013 A large increase in TV and press advertising spend resulted in a strong finish to 2012 for the UK's leading supermarkets.
According to the latest retailer performance figures released today by global information and insights company Nielsen, aggregate sales growth for the UK's leading supermarkets during the four weeks ending 5 January 2013 was up 3.7%* year on year. For the previous four-week period (ending 8 December 2012), year-on-year sales value growth was 1.3%*.
Unit sales (volume) increased 0.5%* year-on-year compared to -0.5%* year-on-year decline for the previous four weeks.
Explaining the figures, Nielsen's UK head of retailer insight Mike Watkins, This was a multi-channel Christmas. Many shoppers planned an online grocery shop in the week before Christmas, followed by supermarket visits in the final few days for a big Christmas shop, last-minute indulgences and fresh foods. With Christmas Day falling early in the following week, Friday 21 and Saturday 22 December were the most intense shopping days, accounting for 15% of all spend during the four weeks ending 5 January. One in three shoppers shopped on both these days. There were also local top-up shops at smaller and convenience stores pre- and post-New Year.
Aldi was the fastest-growing supermarket in the four weeks ending 5 January significantly outperforming the market with a sales growth of 37%, whilst Lidl 11.7% and Waitrose 9.3% also outperformed, consequently, gaining market share. The battle between the top four supermarkets intensified with Tesco just ahead of the pack, growing sales by 5.6%, closely followed by Sainsbury with sales up 5.1%.
Whilst digital media now plays an important role in shaping consumer behaviour and retailer reactions, traditional media is still the powerhouse over Christmas. TV and press spend during the four weeks ending 5 January was up by 23%** over the same period a year ago. Tesco was the highest spending supermarket on TV and press FMCG advertising this Christmas, spending £8.4m in the four weeks ending 5 January 29% more than during the same period last year ahead of Asda with £8.2m, Sainsbury £5.7m and Morrisons £5.5m**.
However, Waitrose had the biggest increase in spend, up by 56%, narrowly ahead of Aldi up 52% although Aldi (£4.8m) spent over twice that of Waitrose (£2.2m) to support a similar market share.
Commenting on Tesco's performance, Watkins says, This year's turning point for Tesco was the London 2012 Olympics, and this momentum continued through to the end of the year. With shoppers under financial pressure, but still wishing to celebrate Christmas and New Year, the challenge for all retailers was to deliver value for money and engage more effectively with the cautious consumer. Advertising and promotions played a key role in attracting shoppers and encouraging them to spend at Tesco.
He continues: We see savvy shopping being the key trend in 2013 with consumers shopping around and looking for the best offers. Therefore, retailers will still need to use promotions and coupons to help drive store footfall. In an increasingly disloyal environment, the battle for the hearts and wallets of shoppers will be top of mind for retailers and brand owners alike.
*Source: Nielsen Scantrack Grocery Multiples
**Source: Nielsen Ad Dynamix
12-Weekly % Share of grocery market spend by retailer and value sales % change
Retailer % share, 12 weeks
to 5 Jan 2013
% share, 12 weeks
to 7 Jan 2012
% value change vs same
12 Weeks Year Ago
TESCO 28.6% 28.6% 3.8%
ASDA 16.6% 17.1% 1.2%
SAINSBURY 16.1% 16.2% 3.4%
MORRISONS 11.0% 11.4% 0.2%
CO-OPERATIVE 6.5% 6.5% 2.8%
WAITROSE 4.3% 4.1% 9.3%
M&S 3.9% 3.9% 4.4%
ALDI 2.8% 2.1% 37.6%
LIDL 2.0% 1.9% 8.8%
ICELAND 2.0% 2.0% 5.1%
The figures in the table are based on 12 weeks sales through to 5 January 2013 compared with the same 12 week period ending in 2012. 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.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
02/06/2026
Studio Technologies, a leading manufacturer of high-quality audio, video, and fiber-optic solutions, announces its new Model 385 Mic/Intercom Beltpack. The Mode...
02/06/2026
The Riedel Group today announced the appointment of Gudrun Scharler as CEO of Riedel Networks. She succeeds Michael Martens, who has led Riedel Networks since 2...
02/06/2026
More signals, higher quality, and outstanding ingest and streaming flexibility deliver professional results in a small, all-in-one footprint...
02/06/2026
farmerswife will be featured on the Modena Media & Entertainment stand at this year's Mediatech Africa 2026, giving visitors an opportunity to explore the l...
02/06/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17 19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
01/06/2026
Designed to solve a common problem in broadcasting, the automated workflow detects, identifies, removes, and documents copyrighted music
AudioShake has introdu...
01/06/2026
The sports-analytics company combines its data with proprietary AI to help leagu...
01/06/2026
Category line-up & sponsors announced
Photo: Paul Clarke
The Production Music Awards (PMA) have announced that submissions are now officially open ahead of...
01/06/2026
New hybrid sample/synthesis instrument revealed
Excite Audio have just released the latest instalment in their Evolve series, which has been developed in co...
01/06/2026
Latest TONEX expansion captures three rare vintage amps
The newest addition to IK Multimedia's ever-growing TONEX line-up introduces a set of three incr...
01/06/2026
Musically intelligent soft synth gets upgraded
Scaler Music will be probably be best known to many for their music theory tools, but their product range al...
01/06/2026
SBS confirms its broadcast sponsors for FIFA World Cup 2026
1 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS has secured Hyundai, Hisense, Macca's, Rexona, bet365, Com...
01/06/2026
Rohde & Schwarz Satellite Industry Days 2026 guided by the motto From Earth to ...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Marshall Electronics is showcasing a comprehensive lineup of next-generation POV cameras, purpose-built to power today's connected AV environments, at InfoC...
01/06/2026
Adobe Announces Concept to Vector
Deepa Subramaniam June 1, 2026
0 Comments
One of the biggest frustrations we hear from designers is how difficult it...
01/06/2026
Vampire Feature Night Patrol Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton June 1, 2026
0 Comments
Colorist shapes dark, gritty tone for horror thri...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Luxembourg, June 1, 2026 - SES, a leading space solutions company, and Viva, Mexico's ultra low-cost airline, launched fast and reliable multi-orbit satelli...
01/06/2026
Agentic AI is getting physical.
At COMPUTEX on Tuesday, NVIDIA announced NVIDIA JetPack 7.2 and NVIDIA NemoClaw support on NVIDIA Jetson.
JetPack 7.2 brings a...
01/06/2026
Financial institutions have spent years building AI: fraud models, credit models...
01/06/2026
Mardi 2 juin 14h00
FilmLight (ARRI), 10 rue Ren Boulanger, 75010 Paris
Rejoignez-nous pour d couvrir comment FLAPI (l'API FilmLight) peut transformer e...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
31/05/2026
Olivia P rez-Collellmir to Premiere Original Work at Gaud Centennial in Barcelona The Berklee graduate and faculty member will debut her choral symphony with...
31/05/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Wins 15 Awards at the Canadian Screen Awards - See Pho...
31/05/2026
Taiwan is home to more than 500 NVIDIA ecosystem partners. More than 1 million N...
31/05/2026
As factories move from isolated automation to plant-wide intelligence, manufacturers need AI systems that can connect live machine signals, quality systems, wor...
31/05/2026
The NVIDIA AI Cloud ecosystem is accelerating the global buildout of AI factory infrastructure. Partners are expanding capacity to meet growing demand from ente...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
Advertising surge by UK supermarkets leads to strong Christmas sales
