Petcare deals cut deepest as big four slash starting prices
The Grocer
Brits had an extra reason to pamper their furry friends last month as the mults ramped up savings on petcare promotions.
Average percentage savings on featured space promotions for petcare products were up four percentage points year on year to 24.29%, compared with 20.29% in the same four-week period in 2015 [Promo Dynamic Retailers 4 w/e October 2016].
Petcare was the only category to see higher savings on featured space promotions, however, with average percentage savings falling from 0.5% to 4.4% across the other 12 primary categories.
And while the Co-op, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose increased the number of featured space promotions in stores year on year, average percentage savings were down across the major mults on a retailer by retailer basis. This would suggest British shoppers are getting a worse deal, but when you take pre-promotional prices into account – which are not directly comparable but look at averages across retailers and categories – some shoppers are still enjoying lower prices than last year, says Assosia director Kay Staniland.
“Tesco featured space promotions show a 6.2% drop in savings vs last year, but their starting prices are down almost 9%, so overall consumers continue to benefit from real savings,” she adds. “On the flipside to this, Asda and Waitrose have an overall higher starting price and savings are down, making the overall promotional benefit a lot smaller. Sainsbury’s has a lower average starting price, but the percentage savings are down by over 7%.
Frequent changes to promotional activity, pricing structure and average percentage savings suggests the major grocery retailers are still “in a spin”, she adds. “Whilst they keep adjusting their formulas to find the right format for their customers, it seems prices and savings will continue to fluctuate.£
Featured Space Promotions Analysis conducted by Assosia.
| 4 weeks to 2nd October 2016 | ||||||
| Asda | Co-op | Morrisons | Sainsbury’s | Tesco | Waitrose | |
| Number of offers | 2414 | 879 | 2479 | 3186 | 2505 | 1317 |
| Number last month | 2432 | 881 | 2477 | 3166 | 2393 | 1355 |
| % change m-o-m | -0.74% | -0.23% | 0.08% | 0.63% | 4.68% | -2.80% |
| Number last year | 2475 | 860 | 2271 | 2872 | 2569 | 1217 |
| % change on last year | -2.46% | 2.21% | 9.16% | 10.93% | -2.49% | 8.22% |
| Average start price (£) per UNIT | £3.82 | £4.35 | £4.59 | £4.43 | £4.54 | £6.31 |
| Typical Average TOTAL £ saving | £1.39 | £1.57 | £1.45 | £1.25 | £1.37 | £2.17 |
| Typical Average TOTAL % saving | 28.7% | 34.6% | 31.2% | 26.8% | 30.3% | 30.3% |
| Average % saving last month | 28.7% | 34.3% | 31.9% | 27.1% | 30.6% | 31.1% |
| % savings change m-o-m | 0.19% | 0.83% | -2.37% | -1.07% | -1.02% | -2.71% |
| Average % saving last year | 29.4% | 36.1% | 37.0% | 28.9% | 32.3% | 33.6% |
| % savings change on last year | -2.29% | -4.24% | -15.84% | -7.39% | -6.20% | -10.05% |
| Current Brand:own-label ratio | 88:12 | 67:33 | 90:10 | 80:20 | 83:17 | 87:13 |
| Ratio 1 year ago | 89:11 | 72:28 | 88:12 | 79:21 | 85:15 | 84:16 |
| Average % saving (branded) | 29.9% | 38.0% | 31.6% | 27.7% | 31.3% | 30.2% |
| Average % saving (o/l) | 20.0% | 27.5% | 27.1% | 23.2% | 25.2% | 30.6% |
Published in The Grocer, 13 October 2016