Christmas 2024: Record online grocery spending and a great year for gammon

Wednesday, 22 January 2025

Grocery sales surpassed £13 billion for the first time this Christmas, with an upturn in grocery price inflation of 3.7%, the highest level since March 2024 (Kantar 4 w/e 29 December 2024). Our latest retail and consumer insight report has shared how meat and dairy performed in the 2024 festive season.

As forecasted in our Christmas predictions article, AHDB shared that 23 December proved to be the most popular grocery shopping day, with sales 30% higher than any other day in 2024.

Growth of premium own-label lines increased by 14.6%, showing that consumers are willing to pay a bit more for a treat at Christmas time.

Online grocery spending reached a record £1.6bn, reaching 5.6m households this Christmas (Kantar 4w/e 29 December 2024), suggesting that many consumers are choosing to avoid the supermarket chaos and shop from their sofas in December.

Total meat, fish and poultry (MFP) volumes remained level with the standout Christmas of 2023, despite a decrease in retail promotions across all red meat roasting joints.

As expected, whole turkey fared well with +2.4% year-on-year volume growth. Gammon roasting joints also had a good year, even with significantly less promotional activity than turkey, with a +1.4% volume increase year-on year (Kantar 4 w/e 29 December 2024).

Volumes of gammon roasting joints sold during December represent 24.4% of all gammon roasting joint volumes sold during 2024, demonstrating the importance of gammon at Christmas festivities.   

Lamb roasting joints also had a strong seasonal performance, echoing the excellent performance for lamb as a whole across 2024 (4.3% volume growth Kantar 52 w/e 29 December 2024).

Our Retail & Consumer Insight Manager, Emma Wantling, said:

“It’s positive to see another strong performance from our meat and dairy sectors this Christmas, once again highlighting the importance of Christmas classics like cheese and roasting joints for British consumers.

“AHDB’s Let’s Eat Balanced marketing campaign has returned this January 2025 to promote the exceptional taste, flavours and nutritional benefits of lean meat and dairy as part of a varied and balanced diet.

“The campaign aims to build trust in the nation’s agricultural sector by bringing consumers closer to the farm, showcasing the resilience and dedication British farmers put into producing food of world-class quality.”

While 2025 total dairy volumes didn’t quite match the ‘Udderly amazing cow dairy sales’ of 2024, a positive uplift was seen for volumes of cow’s cheese and yogurt.

Within cow’s cheese, strong volume growth year-on-year was seen for Cheddar (+3.8%), speciality/continental cheese (+4.8%) and Stilton and British blue cheese (+15.0%) (NIQ POD Homescan, Total GB 2 w/e 28 December 2024), reflecting AHDB’s predictions for cheese boards favouring brie, Cheddar and Stilton.

Volumes of Stilton and British blue cheese sold during December represented 23.7% of total volumes for 2024, reinforcing the importance of seasonal celebrations like Christmas for dairy sales.

As a key accompaniment to many Christmas desserts, it’s no surprise that cream was also a standout performer for dairy. Double cream volumes increased by 2.6% year-on-year and strong promotions on specific types of cream helped drive volume increases for clotted cream (+8.1%) and aerosol cream (8.2%) (NIQ POD Homescan, Total GB, 2 w/e 28 December 2024).

Read our 2024 Christmas report

See our seasonal events analysis for red meat and dairy

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