UK grocery inflation edges higher to 4.3%, says Worldpanel

LONDON, March 3 (Reuters) – UK grocery inflation edged up to 4.3% in the four weeks to February 22, dealing a new blow to consumers after ​it eased in January, data from market researcher ‌Worldpanel by Numerator showed on Tuesday.

Grocery inflation had hit a nine-month low of 4.0% in its previous report.

The figure from Worldpanel provides an early indication of pricing pressures ahead of official UK inflation data ‌on ​March 25.

MEAT, SKIN CARE AND CHOCOLATE ⁠PRICES RISING FASTEST

It said ⁠prices are rising fastest in markets such as fresh unprocessed meat, skin care and chocolate confectionery and falling fastest in chilled butter and spreads, household paper and ​sugar confectionery.

The Bank of England is watching food prices closely as it believes they play a key role in ⁠shaping the public’s overall inflation ⁠expectations. Britain’s headline inflation rate eased to ​3% in January.

Separate data on Tuesday from the British Retail Consortium ​showed annual shop price inflation slowed to 1.1% ‌in February, with food inflation easing to 3.5%.

Worldpanel said that over the 12 weeks to February 22 industry leader Tesco’s sales rose 4.5% year-on-year and its market share grew ⁠20 basis points to 28.7%. Number two Sainsbury’s sales increased 5.2%, taking its share to 16.1%.

Discounter Lidl GB remained the fastest ⁠growing bricks-and-mortar retailer, ‌with sales up 10.0%, while online supermarket ⁠Ocado remained the fastest growing overall, with ​sales ‌up 15.1%.

Number three player Asda continued to ​struggle – its sales ⁠fell 2.6%, giving it a market share of 11.5%, down 80 basis points on the year.

UK supermarkets’ market share and sales growth (%)

% change in

Market share Market sales

12 weeks to share 12 (year-on-ye

Feb 22 2026 weeks to ar)

Feb 23

2025

Tesco 28.5 28.3 4.5

Sainsbury’s 16.1 15.8 5.2

Asda 11.5 12.3 -2.6

Aldi 10.1 10.2 3.1

Morrisons 8.4 8.5 2.3

Lidl 7.8 7.3 10.0

Co-operative 5.0 5.3 -1.6

Waitrose 4.8 4.7 5.6

Iceland 2.3 2.3 2.7

Ocado 2.1 1.9 15.1

Source: Worldpanel by Numerator

(Reporting by James Davey; editing ​by Sarah Young)