LONDON (Reuters) - British grocery sales grew 5.5% year-on-year in the four weeks to April 19 as consumers adapted to life under coronavirus lockdown, making fewer trips to stores but spending more when there, industry data showed on Tuesday.
Market researcher Kantar said that while April's growth was significantly lower than March's record growth of 20.6% when Britons were building-up stocks for the lockdown, sales were still 524 million pounds ($652 million) higher than they were in April 2019.
It said on average, UK households shopped only 14 times for groceries over the four weeks, a record low and down from 17 in more normal times.
But the drop in shopping trips was matched by a corresponding uplift in the amount spent on each visit to 26.02 pounds - the highest figure ever recorded by Kantar and 7 pounds greater than last year.
The researcher said online sales accounted for 10.2% of the total grocery market, having been about 7% prior to the crisis, with the greatest increase among older shoppers.
In the 12 week period to April 19 total grocery sales rose 9.1% year-on-year.
Market leader Tesco 's (L:TSCO) sales were up 7.2%, with Sainsbury 's (L:SBRY), Asda (N:WMT) and Morrisons (L:MRW) up 8.4%, 3.5% and 4.3% respectively.
Sales at discounters Aldi and Lidl were up 8.8% and 14.8% respectively.