The UK food and drink market 2020 and beyond - where to now?

Author: CIM Food, Drink & Agriculture Group

For all sorts of reasons, 2020 has been one of the most eventful years in food and drink retail. The pandemic led many consumers to take their first steps into online shopping, and retailers who were not prepared for the change struggled to keep up with massively increased demand. At the same time, Ocado (now bigger than Tesco in terms of share value), severed its ties with Waitrose in favour of M&S, whilst the discounters continued with their ambitious expansion plans and are now looking to move into the online sector.

But what of the future? Winners and losers, dietary trends and how the country recovers from the pandemic may all have a part to play. Add to that Brexit and the emergence of new entrants such as Amazon Fresh, and the challenge for retailers will be to maintain and grow market share whilst investing in online and keeping an eye on profitability. To some extent environmental issues and ‘plastic free’ have taken back seat during the pandemic, but will it once again emerge as one of the key differentiators in a competitive market?

Speaker:- Andrew Walker
Andrew is Client Knowledge Director at Kantar Worldpanel. Kantar is the global leader in continuous consumer panels. Their UK consumer panel of 30,000 households is the largest single source of continuous consumer and shopper insights, providing insight and information to the world’s leading brands.