Food inflation falls at last — after royal fans spent £218million on goodies to celebrate the King’s Coronation

FOOD inflation is falling at last — after royal fans spent £218million on goodies to celebrate the King’s Coronation.

Price hikes have still added an extra £833 to the average person’s grocery bill over the past year, but the rate of rise is now slowing.

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And despite cost of living pressures, shoppers still celebrated this month’s royal event in style, splashing out hundreds of millions of pounds on groceries during the week.

Sales of wine, fresh cream and pastry soared as people “got into the spirit” of the occasion and tried making the official Coronation quiche, analysts Kantar said.

The average cost of four pints of milk has fallen by 8p since last month, to £1.60.

But it is still 30p higher than it was this time last year.

Grocery price inflation is up by 17.2 per cent in the past 12 months, slightly down from April’s figure of 17.3 per cent.

Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said: “The drop in grocery price inflation is without doubt welcome news for shoppers, but it is still incredibly high — the third fastest rate of grocery inflation we’ve seen since 2008.”

Hard-up shoppers have sent sales of supermarket own-brands up by 15.2 per cent this month, almost double the rise seen for branded products.

Speaking of the King’s Coronation, Mr McKevitt explained: “Sales of ingredients like chilled pastry surged by 89 per cent, while fresh cream sales jumped by 80 per cent and frozen broad beans by 57 per cent.”

Sparkling wine sales climbed by 129 per cent and still wine by 33 per cent.

Wine inflation has been just one per cent over the past year, which may have encouraged consumers to enjoy their favourite tipple.

Waitrose benefited the most from the Coronation, with sales climbing 4.8 per cent, the highest rate of growth the retailer has achieved since April 2021.

Wider inflation was 10.1 per cent in the year to March, with April’s figure set to be published today.

It is expected to drop sharply back to single figures as last year’s energy price rises fall out of the mix.

CAMELOT SALES UP BY £99.6M

NATIONAL Lottery operator Camelot reported a rise in sales over the past year — even though consumers were hit by the cost of living crisis.

It said sales grew by £99.6million to £8.19billion as 382 new millionaires were created during the year.

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It said the increase meant that £1.8billion went to good causes during the year, a £6.2million rise year-on-year.

The firm has one more year to run on its lottery licence before handing over to rival operator Allwyn.

The Czech firm will run the lottery from spring 2024 after winning a bitter bidding war with Camelot.

It took over Camelot UK earlier this year, although the two companies continue to operate separately.

Allwyn boss Robert Chvatal said: “We were delighted to integrate Camelot into the Allwyn group, bringing their experience and know-how to Allwyn UK’s vision for the fourth licence.”

TOPPS & BOTTOM

TOPPS Tiles recorded good and bad news.

Although it posted record half year sales, inflation means profits have more than halved.

The DIY retailer’s group sales climbed 9 per cent to £130million, but pre-tax profits slipped 70 per cent to £1.7million in the 26 weeks to April 1.

Topps said the decrease in profits “reflects the impact of inflation year on year, including significantly increased energy costs, and a number of other one-offs”.

SHELL AGM CHAOS

A CLIMATE activist is removed from Shell’s AGM where protesters tried to storm the stage, forcing security guards to step in to protect board members.

The disruption delayed the start of yesterday’s meeting at ExCel, London.

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Shell said it had a “clear target of net-zero emissions by 2050”.

But climate protesters want the company to bring forward its targets to 2030 and focus more resources on renewable energy.

Around a fifth of shareholders voted against Shell’s green plan and backed a shareholder idea designed to speed up its decarbonisation.

The firm was also criticised over safety concerns.

Chairman Sir Andrew Mackenzie said the firm made “very significant progress on our safety performance in 2022”.

Shell made profits of £32billion last year while paying the equivalent of 22p per UK citizen in tax, protesters say.

BARRATT NO HOME TO ALLAN

OUTGOING Tesco chairman John Allan has been asked to step down from another senior role after being hit by misconduct allegations.

The former president of the crisis-hit CBI will leave his role chairing housebuilder Barratt Developments next month after nine years in the top job.

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The company said the move is being made to prevent the impact of the allegations against Allan “from becoming disruptive to the company”.

Last week the 74-year old business veteran announced he would leave Tesco on June 16 due to allegations in relation to his personal conduct.

He has denied three misconduct claims but “unreservedly apologised” for inappropriate comments made to a female member of Tesco’s staff.

The supermarket chain said it had “not identified any evidence or complaints” in relation to Allan in his tenure as Tesco chairman.

TYCOON’S BT STAKE INCREASE

BILLIONAIRE Patrick Drahi has raised his stake in telecoms giant BT to almost 25 per cent — but says he has no plans to make a takeover offer for the group.

The owner of French telecoms company SFR and auction house Sothebys used his telecoms investment group Altice UK to snap up the extra shares.

He first bought a 12 per cent holding last June but now cannot launch a bid for BT for six months under takeover rules.

BT’s profits fell 12 per cent to £1.7billion for the past year.

Last week it announced it would axe up to 55,000 workers by the end of the decade in a major cost-cutting exercise.