Supermarkets set for boom in non-food sales

The food and grocery specialist predicts that non-food sales in UK grocery stores will increase by 40% to £16.2bn in 2014.

The market is currently worth £11.6bn within the stores, an annual growth of 6.4%.

The growth in non-food sales, which excludes health and beauty or household and cleaning products, comes as retailers increase the assault on the sector. Asda recently rolled out its online collection service, Adsa Direct, across 150 stores. Whilst Sainsbury's is looking to enhance its online non-food offering through the introduction of new services, one of which could be ‘Click and Collect', similar to the Asda Direct set-up.

Gavin Rothwell, senior business analyst at IGD said: ‘While retailers continue to strengthen their core food and grocery business, many are also broadening their non-food ranges beyond toys, DVDs and clothing with items as diverse as fitness equipment, dishwashers and bathroom suites. Others are expanding the services they offer such as banking, eye care and travel services - helping drive further growth.'

The results, in IGD's report UK Grocery Retail Outlook 2009 - Repositioning for growth, states that grocery market is currently worth £146.3bn. IGD forecasts that UK consumers will spend £175.9bn in grocery retail outlets in 2014 - an increase of 20%.  

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk