UK Convenience Forecast to Reach £42bn by 2016 - Continuing to Outperform Overall Grocery Market

The Convenience Retailing 2011: Forces behind a changing landscape report also reveals that in the last 12 months, the sector increased in value by 4.9% and is currently worth £32.4bn.

5/23/2011 --- Latest figures released by international food and grocery analysts IGD reveal that the convenience sector is projected to reach £42.3bn in the next five years - representing a CAGR of 5.5% and continuing to grow at a faster rate than the overall grocery market*.

The Convenience Retailing 2011: Forces behind a changing landscape report also reveals that in the last 12 months, the sector increased in value by 4.9% and is currently worth £32.4bn. Trends such as strong promotional activity, an ongoing rise in petrol prices and the ability to respond to changing shopper behaviour are all contributing to the success of the sector.

William Reed Business Media provided the number of non-affiliated independent stores and revealed that store numbers declined by 3.4% in the last 12 months, a slower rate of decline than the previous year.

Other findings include:
•    There are currently a total of 48,168 convenience stores in operation in the UK (down by 0.4%)
•    Symbol groups were the fastest growing segment in the sector with sales increasing by 9.2% on last year
•    Co-operatives saw a solid performance with sales growing by 3.2% and the total number of stores increasing by 1.4% to 2,471
The number of convenience forecourts decreased slightly by 1.6% although sales increased by 1.4%