In December 2020, an average of 4.22 billion British pounds (GBP) worth of goods were purchased in food stores across Great Britain per week. This represented a record amount spent on food purchases, but was also expected as Christmas season typically means increased food sales across retail stores. As of October 2024, average weekly sales stood at around 3.3 billion British pounds. For data concerning the percentage change in the value of sales in food stores, please see the following.
A shopping rhythm The overall structure of yearly spending remained the same during the period in consideration. January, coinciding with the Veganuary campaign which encourages people to eat vegan as an alternative dietary choice in January, sees a sharp drop after a peak spending during the month of December. After January a few months see an increase leading to an early summer high. After a drop in early autumn November sees the prelude to increased Christmas spending. Grocery market in the United Kingdom The overall value of the UK grocery retail market was estimated to amount to 216.8 billion British pounds in 2022. Of this, about 166.3 billion sales were made in predominantly food stores in 2022. Supermarkets had the highest share of grocery sales in the UK.

In the three months leading up to December 2024, Morrisons sales increased by two percent compared to the same period a year earlier. After struggling with shrinking sales in the second half of 2019, the company enjoyed unprecedented growth in sales throughout 2020. This growth slowed in 2021 as shopper habits stabilized, but started to pick up again in 2023 due to the impacts of inflation. Company profile and market share Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc is the fifth largest grocery retailer in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1899 by William Morrison. The company operates primarily in Great Britain and holds an 8.6 percent share of the grocery market as of November 2024. Traditionally known as one of the big four supermarkets in the UK, Morrisons was recently demoted to fifth place as Aldi took its spot. Morrisons by the numbers Morrisons operates 498 stores across the UK and served an average of 18,000 customers per store per week in its last financial year. In 2020/21, the company made a gross profit of 388 million British pounds, a substantial decrease from previous years. Morrisons' profits hit a peak of just over 1.2 billion British pounds in 2011/12.

In 2025, the value of the leading sales channels in grocery retailing came to approximately ***** billion British pounds (GBP) in the United Kingdom. Of the major sales channels, supermarkets had the largest share of the market value with over *** billion pounds. Supermarkets had more than twice as big a market value as the convenience channel, the second largest channel. By 2030, the value of grocery retailing is expected to increase to over *** billion British pounds. Where UK shoppers buy groceries Some ** percent of surveyed grocery shoppers stated that they regularly shopped at supermarkets in the UK. Online retailers ranked in second place, with*** percent. Market leader Tesco held just over *********** of the market share of all grocery stores in Great Britain in July 2025. Together with Sainsbury's, the two retailers had a combined market share of **** percent. Tesco operated roughly ***** stores in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland in 2025. With this presence, the company regularly reached ** percent of shoppers according to a recent survey.

This statistic illustrates the total number of Morrisons grocery stores in the United Kingdom (UK) from financial year 2009/10 to 2021/22. As of 2022, there were 498 Morrisons stores in the UK. As of August 2023, Morrisons was the fifth largest supermarket in the United Kingdom, following Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, and Aldi. With their headquarters in Bradford, Morrisons supermarkets were predominantly found in the north of the country until 2004, at which point the company took over Safeway supermarkets and their presence was significantly expanded throughout the country. As one of the last supermarkets to venture into the online realm, Morrisons teamed up with the purely online retailer Ocado in 2013 in order to launch its own online service. Furthermore, Morrisons own-label products are also sold online via Amazon Fresh as of 2016.

Waitrose sales increased by 2.6 percent in Great Britain over a 12-week period ending December 1, 2024 compared to the same time period in 2023. Waitrose has experienced an unprecedented growth in sales throughout the 2020 when coronavirus induced lockdowns caused an increase in grocery shopping. Waitrose saw an all-time high in sales growth by 13.2 percent during the 12 weeks ending on 29 November 2020. Company profile Waitrose & Partners is the food retail division of John Lewis Partnership. It has been a subsidiary of John Lewis since 1937. The Bracknell based company was founded in West London in 1904 and operated 329 stores in the United Kingdom in 2024. The company also operates an online store which experienced growth of 13 percent during 2020. Market position The company generated a revenue of over 6.75 billion pounds in the 2022/23 financial year. Revenue growth has slowed down in recent years compared to the early 2010s. As of November 2024, the company ranked 8th in its market with a share of 4.6 percent. Its grocery market share has been stable at around five percent for a number of years now.

The market share of the leading supermarkets in Great Britain (GB) has begun to shift from the traditional market leaders to discounters in recent years. However, Tesco and Sainsbury's have continually had the largest share over the period under consideration, holding **** percent of the market together as of July 2025. Prior to the popularity of the discounters, the grocery retail market was dominated by the 'big four' supermarkets: Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, and Morrisons. On the back of the post-Brexit uncertainty and growing inflation, consumer behavior has shifted in favor of cheaper alternatives such as Aldi and Lidl. In September 2022, Aldi took over fourth place in the grocery store ranking from Morrisons for the first time. In April 2023, Aldi's market share reached double digits for the first time. In July 2025, this figure stood at **** percent.

In the United Kingdom, Sainsbury's, M&S Food, and Aldi were the most popular three supermarket chains in Q1 2025. Sainsbury's topped the ranking with 84 percent of respondents having a positive opinion of the food retailer. M&S Food and Aldi came in second and third places and were popular with 81 percent and 78 percent of those polled in this study, respectively. UK grocery market The entire UK grocery market was worth almost 227 billion British pounds in 2024, according to estimates. Market leader Tesco operated over 4,300 stores as of May 2025. In comparison, mixed retailer M&S operated close to 1,100 stores in the UK. Marks & Spencer as a grocery retailer M&S is a mixed retailer and sometimes not even included in statistics about the UK grocery market. When viewed as a grocery store, the company had a market share of slightly over three percent as of August 2021. Compared to other grocery and food retailers, M&S is only a minor player on the market. Since the first of September 2020, M&S grocery products can be ordered via the online grocery store Ocado.

In 2023, is was forecast that the grocery market in the United Kingdom would grow by around 6.1 percent. Growth hit an all-time high in 2020 at over eight percent and is forecast to decrease to 2.3 percent by 2026.

Market shares of grocery stores

As of August 2023, the four most important players on the grocery market were Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, and Aldi. The market leader Tesco had a share of over a quarter of the market. Fifth-placed Morrisons was around 1.5 percent away from retaking fourth place from Aldi.

Sales channels

The most relevant grocery sales channels measured by generated monetary value are supermarkets and convenience stores. Discounters, a smaller channel in comparison, still surpassed online sales.

In 2021, the size of the UK grocery market stood at around *** billion British pounds. The market has been steadily growing since 2004 and is estimated to reach over *** billion British pounds by 2027. Grocery retail channels It was estimated that in 2027, supermarkets will be the largest sales channel for grocery retail with a value of almost ** billion pounds. Online channels are expected to amount to **** billion pounds. UK grocery market The five leading companies on the grocery market are Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons, and Aldi. It was only the German discounter Aldi that saw rapid growth and has proven to be a significant disruptive force on the market. On average, households in the UK spent **** British pounds on food and non-alcoholic drinks per week in 2020.

Ocado Group reported more than 2.8 billion British pounds in revenues for the 53 weeks ending December 3, 2023. The online supermarket had less than 600 million British pounds in revenues in 2011. However, revenue streams steadily increased over the years and surpassed the two-billion-pounds threshold during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Online grocery pioneer When Ocado was founded in Hatfield, England in 2000, very few people were thinking about ordering their groceries on the internet. Fast forward to 2022 and more than 60 percent of UK shoppers report doing at least part of their grocery shopping online. That year, Ocado had approximately 940,000 active customers, up from 680,000 only two years prior. Online supermarkets in the UK In the grocery retail landscape in the UK, Ocado competes with big supermarket chains like Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Asda. As of April 2023, Ocado ranked fourth among the most popular grocery websites in the UK based on visit share. That month, tesco.com had the highest web traffic among selected online supermarkets at nearly 30 million visits. In comparison, ocado.com had approximately 6.5 million monthly visitors.

When it comes to the most well-known grocery stores in the UK, the top two spots are claimed by UK-based brands. This includes Tesco and Asda, as each one of these British retailers is recognized by 98 and 97 percent respectively of internet respondents. Third on this list are the German discount retailer chains Aldi and Lidl.For this study, brand awareness was surveyed employing the concept of aided brand recognition, showing respondents both the brand's logo and the written brand name. Interested in more detailed results covering all brands of this ranking and many more? Explore GCS Brand Profiles. These statistics show results of the Brand KPI survey.

Tesco.com topped the ranking of online grocery stores in the United Kingdom, generating an estimated 4.58 billion U.S. dollars in e-commerce net sales in 2024. Sainsburys.co.uk ranked second, with 3.8 billion U.S. dollars in online grocery sales. Online grocery market in the UK After skyrocketing into double-digit figures during the pandemic, the online share of food sales in the United Kingdom has stabilized post-pandemic. As of December 2024, approximately nine percent of all food retail sales were made online. Compared to the pandemic peak of 12 percent in January 2021, demand for online grocery in the UK has not waned and remained robust despite the return of in-store shopping. Online grocery shoppers In March 2024, a fifth of the UK population was purchasing food and drink online, a figure eight percentage points lower than the e-commerce penetration rate achieved at the height of the pandemic in March 2021. However, current penetration rates in the food and beverage e-commerce market are markedly higher than pre-pandemic. UK online shoppers were the most frequent buyers of fresh food and beverages online among their European counterparts in 2022.

Online grocery shopping has become increasingly popular among shoppers since the COVID-19 pandemic, which spurred consumers to purchase their supermarket goods through the internet when faced with lockdowns and stay-home advisories. In 2021, the online food and grocery sales in the United Kingdom amounted to about ** billion British pounds. That figure was forecast to increase to nearly ** billion by 2025. Post-pandemic slowdown despite new shopping habits While online grocery still is expected to generate billions in revenue, growth of the market is set to slow down significantly. As official regulation surrounding the pandemic has ended, the high demand for online grocery ordering has lowered in turn. However, many consumers in 2022, particularly those of higher ages, still cited that avoiding crowds and risk of infection at physical stores was a strong reason for ordering their groceries online. Another popular reason for online grocery shoppers was due to having no time to go to the store themselves. Not the perfect alternative While saving time and avoiding crowds are pros to buying groceries on the web, there are also inevitable cons with this method of grocery shopping. A 2022 survey revealed that too many substituted items, not being able to find suitable delivery times, and un-fresh groceries were the most common negative aspects to online grocery shopping in the UK. These factors may be part of why nearly ** percent of shoppers bought their groceries primarily in-stores, and only partially online.

************* and ****************************** are the top two answers among UK consumers in our survey on the subject of "Grocery shopping by store type".The survey was conducted online among 5,452 respondents in the UK, in 2025. Looking to gain valuable insights about grocery store customers across the globe? Check out our reports about consumers of grocery stores worldwide. These reports offer the readers a comprehensive overview of grocery store customers: who they are; what they like; what they think; and how to reach them.

We asked UK consumers about "Online grocery & beverage shopping by store brand" and found that ******* takes the top spot, while ************ is at the other end of the ranking.These results are based on a representative online survey conducted in 2025 among 1,337 consumers in the UK. Looking to gain valuable insights about grocery store customers across the globe? Check out our reports about consumers of grocery stores worldwide. These reports offer the readers a comprehensive overview of grocery store customers: who they are; what they like; what they think; and how to reach them.

********************* and ************* are the top two answers among UK consumers in our survey on the subject of "Groceries & beverages purchased online by category".The survey was conducted online among 1,337 respondents in the UK, in 2025. Looking to gain valuable insights about grocery store customers across the globe? Check out our reports about consumers of grocery stores worldwide. These reports offer the readers a comprehensive overview of grocery store customers: who they are; what they like; what they think; and how to reach them.

In 2021, the total market value of grocery retailing came to approximately 211.9 billion British pounds (GBP) in the United Kingdom. Of the five major sales channels, supermarkets had the largest share of the market value with 91 billion pounds. Supermarkets had more than twice as big a market value as the convenience channel, the second largest channel. By 2027, the value of grocery retailing is expected to increase to over 241 billion British pounds. Where UK shoppers buy groceries Some 88 percent of surveyed grocery shoppers stated that they regularly shopped at supermarkets in the UK. Online retailers ranked in second place, with 27 percent. Market leader Tesco held just over one-quarter of the market share of all grocery stores in Great Britain in September 2022. Together with Sainsbury's, the two retailers had a combined market share of 41.5 percent. Tesco operated roughly 4,050 stores in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland in 2022. With this presence the company regularly reached 56 percent of shoppers according to a recent survey.

This statistic shows the number of stores for seven of the leading supermarkets in the United Kingdom (UK) as of February 2018. Tesco had by far the highest number of stores in the United Kingdom, with a total of 2,653. This was almost double the amount of Sainbury's who had the second highest number of stores open.

During the 12 weeks ending in June 2025, sales of supermarket chain Iceland grew by 1.9 percent in Great Britain compared to the same period in the previous year. Sales growth peaked in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic.

The number of online grocery retailers in the United Kingdom reached a total of ***** in 2022. This number is forecast to increase slightly in 2023 with ***** online grocery retailers throughout the country.