Case Study
Face-to-Face Consumer Interviews For Havering Council
A cutback on booze deals drove a significant drop in promotional activity across the mults last month.
Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco all slashed promotional activity significantly compared with last year, with the number of featured space promotions falling by 12.7%, 21.8% and 13.3% respectively compared with the same four-week period in 2016 [4 w/e 1 October 2017].
Waitrose also cut its promotional activity by 7% year on year, while the Co-op slashed the number of deals by 5.8%. Only Asda upped the total number of promotions in its stores, up by 4.1% on last year.
Booze took the brunt of the cuts, with the number of supermarket deals on wine slashed by 34.5%. Spirits deals fell by 15.8% and beer and lager offers were down 30% year on year.
Only the Co-op offered more deals on wine more than last year, with the number of offers up by 40% in stores. Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose all cut wine promotions considerably.
In better news for shoppers, average savings on wine were up by 2.9 percentage points to 28.6%, while beer and lager savings remained steady at 15.8%. This reflected a wider increase in average savings across grocery last month, with most of the major supermarkets offering better deals.
“The best average saving of 34.8% can be found in the Co-op, whilst Asda and Sainsbury’s offer savings of just 27.7%,” says Assosia director Kay Staniland. “However, the Co-op comes bottom on alcohol savings at 2.5% below the retailer average of 22.4%.”
Save deals in particular offered deeper cuts, and were up 1.0 percentage points last month to account for 72% of supermarket offers. However, a drop in the number of half-price deals meant single price promotions fell by 0.2 percentage points overall, while multibuys were up 0.2 percentage points to account for 18.5% of total supermarket deals.
| 4 weeks to 1st October 2017 | ||||||
| Asda | Co-op | Morrisons | Sainsbury’s | Tesco | Waitrose | |
| Number of offers | 2513 | 828 | 2163 | 2491 | 2171 | 1224 |
| Number last month | 2516 | 804 | 2136 | 2522 | 2129 | 1230 |
| % change m-o-m | -0.12% | 2.99% | 1.26% | -1.23% | 1.97% | -0.49% |
| Number last year | 2414 | 879 | 2479 | 3186 | 2505 | 1317 |
| % change on last year | 4.10% | -5.80% | -12.75% | -21.81% | -13.33% | -7.06% |
| Average start price (£) per UNIT | £3.32 | £4.02 | £4.42 | £4.85 | £4.43 | £6.13 |
| Typical Average TOTAL £ saving | £1.20 | £1.42 | £1.63 | £1.38 | £1.35 | £1.99 |
| Typical Average TOTAL % saving | 27.7% | 34.8% | 34.4% | 27.7% | 31.2% | 29.5% |
| Average % saving last month | 27.6% | 34.8% | 31.9% | 28.1% | 30.4% | 30.0% |
| % savings change m-o-m | 0.15% | -0.11% | 7.73% | -1.25% | 2.57% | -1.50% |
| Average % saving last year | 28.7% | 34.6% | 31.2% | 26.8% | 30.3% | 30.3% |
| % savings change on last year | -3.65% | 0.53% | 10.33% | 3.55% | 3.10% | -2.39% |
| Current Brand:own-label ratio | 91:9 | 77:23 | 89:11 | 78:22 | 86:14 | 88:12 |
| Ratio 1 year ago | 88:12 | 69:31 | 90:10 | 80:20 | 83:17 | 87:13 |
| Average % saving (branded) | 28.5% | 35.8% | 35.1% | 28.6% | 31.9% | 29.5% |
| Average % saving (o/l) | 19.0% | 31.3% | 28.5% | 24.6% | 26.9% | 29.7% |
| AVERAGE STARTING PRICE LAST YEAR | £3.82 | £4.35 | £4.59 | £4.43 | £4.54 | £6.31 |
| Increase/Decrease in starting price £ | -£0.50 | -£0.33 | -£0.16 | £0.41 | -£0.12 | -£0.19 |
| Increase/Decrease in starting price % | -15.18% | -8.21% | -3.73% | 8.55% | -2.64% | -3.03% |
Published in The Grocer, 13 October 2017