Soup sales up as rainy spring affects spending

One of the rainiest springs on record boosted warm soup sales while denting those for sun cream, new figures suggest.

The wet weather caused the slowest monthly increase in grocery sales in two years as people were “put off from popping to the shops”, according to research firm Kantar.

The cost of living also played a role in the decreased spending, with nearly a quarter of households surveyed by the company saying they were still struggling.

However, Kantar also recorded a big jump in financially “comfortable” households because of slowing price rises and predicted a boost in spending from the Euros.

“The cost of living crisis isn’t over – far from it,” said Kantar’s head of retail and consumer insight Fraser McKevitt.

“However, there are positive signs that many of us no longer feel the need to restrict our spending quite so much,” he added.

According to Kantar’s analysis, its measure of grocery price inflation was 2.1% over the four weeks to 9 June and it said this was the 16th monthly period in a row the figure had fallen.

It said this contributed to a rise in people feeling better about their finances, with over one-third of the 10,500 people it surveyed describing their financial position as comfortable, the highest figure since November 2021.