SAVVY shoppers have switched to cheaper own-brands and discount supermarkets to shield themselves from rocketing food bills.
Some have saved about £350 in the past year by adapting their habits — defying the headline £683 food inflation figure.
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Around a quarter of grocery purchases are now on items being sold on promotion, according to analysts Kantar.
Meanwhile, sales of cheaper own-brand products, which typically cost half as much as big-brand versions, have surged.
And budget stores Aldi and Lidl continue to pull in new customers.
Aldi grew its sales by 24 per cent over the 12 weeks to July 9.
Lidl’s were up 22 per cent – more than double that of Sainsbury’s, which is the best of the majors.
Latest figures show food inflation is easing, falling from 16.5 per cent to 14.9 per cent last month.
That is the sharpest drop since the cost-of-living crisis took hold last year as falling fuel, shipping and commodity costs have fed through the market.
But cash-strapped Brits are still facing much higher prices on essential goods than a year ago.
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Supermarket chiefs say pasta, bread, dairy and vegetable oils dropped fastest in the past few months but are unlikely to fall to previous levels.
Analysts said eggs, oven chips and cooking sauces were still rising quickly.
Fraser McKevitt, Kantar’s head of retail and consumer insight, said: “Grocery price inflation has been falling for four months in a row.
“That’ll be good news for many although, of course, the rate’s still incredibly high.”
Stores are facing political scrutiny amid claims of greedflation.
Bosses recently told MPs profits are down and falling costs were quickly passed on.
Iceland yesterday announced it was investing £26million on cutting prices on goods like bread and mackerel, and introducing a three for £3 offer.
CARBON CREDIT
THE fertiliser giant bailed out by taxpayers during the 2021 carbon dioxide crisis has seen its profits soar 500 per cent in two years.
CF Industries gained Government support in 2021 after it said rising costs could force it to shut down its factories, which would have threatened carbon dioxide supplies — essential in food production.
Since then, the US firm has still closed one of its two UK sites, claiming it was unviable.
It made a £1.28billion profit last year, compared to £133million in 2020.
THE number of firms going bust in June was up 27 per cent on the same month last year.
Around 2,163 collapsed in England and Wales last month, more than before the pandemic as companies struggle with higher costs and lower consumer demand.
PRET’S IN PROFIT
PRET has returned to profit for the first time since 2018 thanks to higher prices and more subscription sign-ups.
The sandwich chain said sales rose 20 per cent to £429.9million in the first six months of this year.
Separate accounts show that it swung back into annual operating profits of £50.6million in 2022, compared to a loss of £225.9million in 2021.
Pret said its Club Pret loyalty card was used in 57.9million transactions last year after adding a 10 per cent discount to its coffee offers.
ARSENAL ACE APPY TO TRADE
ARSENAL footballer Jorginho has backed a new trading app that likens investment funds to music playlists and albums.
Gather, which launched this week, is designed to appeal to first-time investors who are put off or confused by financial jargon.
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People can put in as little as £30 to the investment fund and have access to stocks and bonds managed by Blackrock, one of the world’s biggest investment managers.
Investors gain a return of 4.7 per cent while there is no lock-in that prevents them from immediately withdrawing their cash.
That compares to a 1.9 per cent maximum savings rate on high street banks’ easy access accounts.
Jorginho, 31, who has a 10 per cent stake in the firm, said: “What made Gather so appealing to me was how easy it was to begin making sound investments with confidence.”
BOOHOO TRIO JOIN IN REVOLT
REVOLUTION BEAUTY has bowed to major stakeholder Boohoo after a bitter boardroom battle.
Weeks after a very public bust-up at Revolution’s shareholder meeting, the cosmetic company has said its CEO Bob Holt and chairman Derek Zissman have agreed to resign from the board.
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They will be replaced by a trio of Boohoo representatives including Alistair McGeorge, the former boss of New Look, and the online retailer’s former finance chief Neil Catto.
Revolution is keeping other directors in place while it tries to sign off on its latest accounts following a rollercoaster year.
Its shares have only recently restarted trading after it was plunged into an accounting scandal that led to its two founders quitting.
An investigation found that revenue values had been inflated and the founders had given secret loans to suppliers in exchange for boosting their orders — which made the business look bigger than it was.
MPs’ CALL TO BANKS
BANKS have been told they should make a greater effort to tell customers if they are elig-ible for a higher savings rate.
High street lenders were slammed by MPs for offering a savings rate as low as 0.9 per cent when the Bank rate is as much as five per cent.
Some lenders pleaded that they couldn’t reach customers to tell them they could switch because of data law requirements — but the Information Commissioners Office yesterday told them that they could.
NEW OCADO RUMOURS
THE boss of OCADO yesterday dismissed renewed takeover speculation that the online grocer could be a target for Amazon.
Ocado has divided the City for more than two decades after consistently reporting losses but promising jam tomorrow in an online revolution.
It yesterday recorded a 37 per cent increase in losses to £289.5million in six months.
But for the first time, its cash-hungry tech business, which licenses its software to retail clients and builds robotic warehouses, turned a profit.
The firm was let down by losses in its retail arm, which delivers groceries to households.
Chief exec Tim Steiner said of the Amazon talk: “Speculation is speculation.”
But he called the continued rise of online shopping “inevitable.. it’s the march of technology”.
SUN BUSINESS COMMENT
WHEN OCADO agreed a deal in 2019 with M&S to deliver its online groceries, it was billed as a £750m tie-up. Except only £560m was paid up front.
Now the relationship looks strained. Ocado has slowed the pace of its warehouse rollouts, restricting its M&S operations. Tough chats lie ahead over whether it gets that extra £190m.
THREADS 50% DROP
MARK Zuckerberg’s so-called “Twitter killer” Threads has seen the amount of time users spend on the site drop 50 per cent within its first week, according to analysts.
Threads was launched by Facebook owner Meta last week and signed up 100 million users in less than a week.
But the number of users has fallen by 20 per cent since the weekend and users are halving their time on the platform to 10 minutes, tech consultancy firm Sensor Tower said.
