Spirits, lager, wine ruled in 2021 while cosmetics and deos waned

Booze was on Britons’ mind this year as spirits, lager, wine, sparkling wine and champagne are among the fastest-growing grocery of 2021, says a recently-released data from NielsenIQ, highlighting how shoppers’s buying habits are still evolving two years into the pandemic with people gravitating to certain brands and products.

According to NielsenIQ’s Top Products 2021 survey, sales of lager (+£198.9m), wine (+£295.1m), sparkling wine and champagne (+227.4m) rose significantly while the largest increase was reserved for spirits (+393.9m), with Smirnoff vodka (+£65.1m) emerging as the main winner.

Snacking and treating themselves seemed to rule as sales of snacking items such as chocolate (+£147.7m) and bagged snacks (+£130.6m) increased significantly. Energy drinks (+£205.6m), such as Monster (+£105.9m) and Red Bull (+£79.8m), and Coca-Cola (+£83.3m) were among the fastest-growing grocery products. Sales of salmon also surged (+£54.4m) after being seen as a low price meal option suitable for ‘out of home’ style dining occasions at home.

Social media showed its influence as luxury treat items such as Little Moons (+£17.6m), an ice-cream dessert that has been popularised across social media, saw a huge uptick in sales.

Some of the pandemic buying trends however seemed to have subsided this year. Sales of toilet roll – which was at the centre of stockpiling in 2020 – have normalised at a higher level, and there has been a dip in sales of surface cleaner products (-£39.5m) and soap (-£32.1m).

Sales of grocery products that are popular with cooking from scratch, such as potatoes (-£70.9m), bread, cooking sauces, rice, and pasta have all declined within the last year, indicating that consumers have once again shifted from at-home cooking and recreating dining experiences at home.

While potato sales fell considerably, tomatoes (+£22m) emerged as UK’s best-selling vegetable in 2021, worth £790.3m in retail value. Strawberries (+£26.1m) overtook bananas (-£42.4m) to become Britain’s favourite fruit, with sales reaching £614.5m.

Increase in home working and reduction in socialising continued to hamper the sales of deodorant (-£37.8m) and cosmetics (-£40.0m).