Whilst the economy has undoubtedly weakened in 2022 as the cost of living crisis bites and reduces disposable income, many retailers and merchants have posted very good sales figures year to date, on top of a very strong first half in 2021 for many. The trade sector in particular is doing well. There were, of course, Covid restrictions early in 2021, with shops shut but it is still very encouraging and long may it continue.Within supermarkets, consumers are gravitating towards discounters with Aldi and Lidl in growth, and about 10%-points ahead of the Grocery market average.Of course, none of these figures relate to May, where consumers will have felt the impact of the National Insurance increase in the April pay, and the increased energy price cap from 1 April, on top of rising fuel and food costs.Housewares• Dunelm +69% YoY sales, 13 weeks ending 26 MarDIY/Trade
- Wickes sales “in line with last year” in first 11 weeks of 2022 (and had grown 19.7% in Q1 2021)
- Topps Tiles +45% YoY, 9 weeks to 5th March
- TP Group +13.6% YoY, 3 months to 31st March
- Grafton Group Europe, +15% YoY YTD to 17th April
- Howdens +21.8% YoY, 16 weeks ending 16 April
- Eurocell +13.3%, YoY 4 months ending 30 April
It will be interesting to see Kingfisher's results on Monday.E-commerce
- eBay (Global) -20% YoY, 13 w/e 31 Mar (Gross Merchandise Volume sold using the platform)
- Amazon (Global) +7% YoY, 13 w/e 31 Mar
Supermarkets12 weeks ending 17 April 2022
- All supermarkets -5.9%
- Aldi +4.2%
- Lidl +4.0%
- Independent supermarkets -11.5%
- Waitrose -9.2%
- Asda – 10.3%
- Morrisons -10.5%
YoY = Year on Year
