Aldi on heels of the Big Four in great Christmas groceries race

Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Aldi are leading the pack as the grocers tussle for spend as they enter the key Christmas trading period, it emerged on Tuesday.

Sales at Tesco were up by 2.5%, growing the fastest among the Big Four supermarket groups, said Kantar Worldpanel, with Sainsbury’s not far behind at 2% over the 12 week period to December 3.

However, the largest supermarket groups have been overshadowed by German discounter Aldi, which continues to grab market share from incumbents. Aldi’s sales were up 15.1% while Lidl’s were up 14.5%.

Grocery prices were 3.6% higher compared with the same time last year, hitting another four-year high and piling more pressure on shoppers’ wallets ahead of Christmas. In November the grocery price inflation was 3.4%. Butter, fish and fresh pork were hit the hardest by food inflation, with prices falling in only handful of products such as fresh chicken and crisps. Grocery sales increased overall by 3.1% year-on-year.

Next Friday is expected to be the biggest shopping day of the year as shoppers splurge ahead of Christmas but customers have already been splashing the cash on booze. Alcohol sales were up almost £172 million on 2016, boosted by gin (26%), whisky (10%) and wine (7%).

Fraser McKevitt of Kantar Worldpanel said: “Christmas Day falls on a Monday this year — last time that happened, in 2006, the Friday before was the most popular day for grocery shopping that year.”

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney got his pen out on Tuesday as inflation hit 3.1% — the level prompting an open letter to the Chancellor to explain the overshoot in the Consumer Prices Index.

But many experts suggest the cost of living will fall back next year as the Brexit slump in the pound falls out of the official inflation figures. The pound edged lower after the numbers.