United Kingdom: grocery retail market value 2020-2026, by channel

In 2020, the total market value of grocery retailing came to approximately 205 billion British pounds (GBP) in the United Kingdom. Of the five major sales channels, supermarkets had the largest share of the market value with 90.2 billion pounds. Supermarkets had more than twice as big a market value as the convenience channel, the second largest channel. By 2026, the value of grocery retailing is expected to increase to over 229 billion British pounds.

Grocery stores in the UK

A hypermarket combines a grocery store with a department store and is therefore not strictly a pure grocer. Supermarkets and convenience stores have a few defining characteristics, with the store size being the most easily measurable factor. If the dividing line is set at three thousand square feet, roughly 42 thousand convenience stores (including forecourts*) were operating in the UK in 2018. A much smaller number of roughly six thousand supermarkets and over 4.5 thousand discounters supplied customers with access to groceries. The number of convenience stores shrank compared to 2017, mostly likely due to a closure of almost 500 Symbols (franchise retailers).

Where UK shoppers buy regularly

Market leader Tesco operated roughly four thousand stores in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. With this presence the company regularly reached 63 percent of shoppers according to our survey in early 2019. All Supermarkets in the UK combined reached 67 percent of shoppers, closely followed by Hypermarkets with 65 percent. Discounters reached a little over half of the populous.