Latest news with #Kantar
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
One summer doesn't tell the story: Coke upbeat on India
Mumbai: Coca-Cola global chief operating officer Henrique Braun declared consumer demand in India was 'resilient' amid slowing sales across household products and groceries, exacerbated by early onset of monsoon that curtailed sales of summer products, including beverages and colas. "We continue to see resilient demand in India. Summer still accounts for a larger percentage all over the world. But what is more important is the overall year equation, how you get events during the year when you can actually increase consumption, and then level off the seasonality moving forward," said Braun. "There are still many occasions that we need to develop for seasonality to actually be lowered. An all-weather mindset is important and the only thing that's going to change is that we are going to pivot fast and make sure we need to be back on track." Demand for fast-moving consumer goods worsened to a two-year low in the March quarter with FMCG volume sales growth of 3.5%, according to global research firm Kantar. However, Coca-Cola saw double-digit volume growth in the quarter due to higher inventory stocking before summer. However, the onset of India's monsoon, the earliest since 2009, impacted sales growth of summer goods including beverages and ice-cream, which counts April-June as their peak season. The company behind Maaza and Thums Up , however, said market measurements don't fully factor ecommerce sales, especially quick commerce in cities, which have been seeing highest demand pressure over the past year. "So, if you think about the urban, not only the sales that you get through the normal channels, but the whole ecosystem (has to be factored in). That math is not easily done as some of the market measurements don't capture everything. It's all happening in the urban, not necessarily in the rural," added Braun. "India has accelerated tremendously in digitisation. One of the things that was, to me, an eye opener as well, in terms of another channel that's developing here is the quick commerce that is very unique to India. It's accelerating, every time I come in, it's bigger." India is Atlanta-based Coca-Cola's fifth largest market by volume. Globally and well as in India, shifting consumer tastes are prompting beverage companies, including Coca-Cola and Pepsi , to find ways to diversify from traditional soda and high-calorie juices to low calories versions.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Asda market share hits record low as crisis deepens
Asda's share of the grocery market has fallen to a record low in a fresh setback for the struggling supermarket. New figures show that Asda's market share fell to 12.1pc in the 12 weeks to May 18, which is the lowest level since Kantar started collecting data in 2011. That is despite Allan Leighton launching a price war to kickstart turnaround efforts at Asda, which has lost swathes of customers to the likes of Tesco, Aldi and Lidl. Lower prices helped the retailer record its best performance in a year, although this did not prevent sales from falling by 3.2pc over the period. This means that Asda was once again the only supermarket to record a drop in sales in the 12 weeks, with the likes of Lidl and Ocado posting growth of 10.9pc and 14.9pc respectively. Even Marks & Spencer and the Co-op reported improved grocery sales despite suffering cyber attacks. Asda has struggled ever since it was bought by private equity firm TDR Capital and the Issa brothers in 2021, as the debt-fuelled £6.8bn takeover hindered attempts to keep up with lower-priced competitors. The supermarket chain has also been left without a permanent chief executive when Roger Burnley stood down in August 2021. Mr Leighton was drafted in as chairman last year to revive the retailer's fortunes, since ploughing investment into increasing store opening hours while also reintroducing Rollback – its price-cutting campaign. However, the retail veteran faces an uphill battle, as data shows that Asda's market share has fallen from 15.0pc in 2021 to 12.3pc. Meanwhile, the latest figures also revealed that grocery price inflation is now at its highest level since early 2024, hitting 4.1pc over the period. It comes after retailers warned they would have to increase prices as a result of Labour's Budget, which hit them with increased National Insurance (NI) contributions and lowered the threshold at which those contributions are paid. The tax raid kicked in last month. Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said: 'This latest jump in grocery price inflation takes us into new territory for 2025. 'Households have been adapting their buying habits to manage budgets for some time, but we typically see changes in behaviour once inflation tips beyond the 3pc to 4pc point as people notice the impact on their wallets more. 'Own label lines are ones to watch, with premium own label, in particular, being the fastest growing part of the market since September 2023.' Total grocery sales grew by 4.4pc in May, Kantar added, while Ocado was the fastest-growing retailer year on year with sales growth of 14.9pc. Elsewhere, both Lidl and Aldi's market share reached fresh highs, hitting 8.1pc and 11.1pc respectively. Tesco also grew its share to 28pc, while Sainsbury's slipped from 15.3pc to 15.1pc. An Asda spokesman said: 'We have a clear plan to drive improvements in key areas like price, availability and service underpinned by a material investment in the business. 'The Kantar figures highlight Asda had its best performance since last May, which demonstrates that customers are responding positively to the changes we have made.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Sign in to access your portfolio
Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
One summer doesn't tell the story: Coke upbeat on India
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Mumbai: Coca-Cola global chief operating officer Henrique Braun declared consumer demand in India was 'resilient' amid slowing sales across household products and groceries, exacerbated by early onset of monsoon that curtailed sales of summer products, including beverages and colas."We continue to see resilient demand in India. Summer still accounts for a larger percentage all over the world. But what is more important is the overall year equation, how you get events during the year when you can actually increase consumption, and then level off the seasonality moving forward," said Braun. "There are still many occasions that we need to develop for seasonality to actually be lowered. An all-weather mindset is important and the only thing that's going to change is that we are going to pivot fast and make sure we need to be back on track."Demand for fast-moving consumer goods worsened to a two-year low in the March quarter with FMCG volume sales growth of 3.5%, according to global research firm Kantar. However, Coca-Cola saw double-digit volume growth in the quarter due to higher inventory stocking before the onset of India's monsoon, the earliest since 2009, impacted sales growth of summer goods including beverages and ice-cream, which counts April-June as their peak company behind Maaza and Thums Up , however, said market measurements don't fully factor ecommerce sales, especially quick commerce in cities, which have been seeing highest demand pressure over the past year."So, if you think about the urban, not only the sales that you get through the normal channels, but the whole ecosystem (has to be factored in). That math is not easily done as some of the market measurements don't capture everything. It's all happening in the urban, not necessarily in the rural," added Braun. "India has accelerated tremendously in digitisation. One of the things that was, to me, an eye opener as well, in terms of another channel that's developing here is the quick commerce that is very unique to India. It's accelerating, every time I come in, it's bigger."India is Atlanta-based Coca-Cola's fifth largest market by volume. Globally and well as in India, shifting consumer tastes are prompting beverage companies, including Coca-Cola and Pepsi , to find ways to diversify from traditional soda and high-calorie juices to low calories versions.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
New study finds this company most accurate for hurricane predictions. Is it right?
As the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season approaches, it is vitally important for Floridians who are potentially in the line of fire to have the most accurate, up-to-date weather information available. A new study by London-based marketing and analytics firm Kantar suggests that it might come from AccuWeather. Based on forecasts during the 2024 Atlantic season, Kantar determined that "AccuWeather's forecasts are, on average, the most accurate, the best communicated, and overall the most useful for people to make the best decisions to protect life and property." However, other meteorologists pointed out problems with Kantar's report. "The AccuWeather 'study' makes claims about their forecast skill that cannot be falsified, and thus are not scientific," said Dr. Ryan Truchelut, co-founder, president, and chief meteorologist of Tallahassee-based weather forecasting company WeatherTiger. "Without offering a study methodology to scrutinize, there is no way to evaluate the so-called findings in the slide deck, other than to say the document overall reads like something put together by consultants with no background in meteorology, working backwards from a conclusion," Truchelut said in an email. "As Accuweather does not issue detailed track and intensity forecasts to the public each 6 hours as the NHC does, there is no independent means of verifying their forecasts, as the NHC rigorously does after each season." Other critics pointed out that the report seemingly does not include false positives where AccuWeather forecasted system developments that never happened, the study looked at only one year, and it may not have compared apples to apples in the data. "The report is an exercise in marketing and self-aggrandizement, and nothing else," Truchelut said. "Furthermore, it is also in extraordinarily ill taste to attack the NHC now, with NOAA and the NWS suffering continued cuts." The report comes as the Trump administration has made drastic cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which oversees the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Service, among other agencies. More than 550 of the 4,800 weather service employees have been dismissed, retired or accepted incentive offers to step down, leaving many of the forecast offices shorthanded with staff reductions from 20-40% and scrambling to cover staffing and maintain the usual quality and number of measurements. Several offices were forced to end weather balloon launches, which can reduce the agency's ability to predict weather, and CNN reported on May 2 that 30 NWS offices no longer had a lead meteorologist. 'This has never happened before. We've always been an agency that has provided 24/7 service to the American public,' Tom Fahy, legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization, told ABC News. 'The risk is extremely high — if cuts like this continue to the National Weather Service, people will die.' Weather forecasts: Trump cuts leave National Weather Service scrambling to cover vital shifts Project 2025, the conservative roadmap and wishlist from right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation, calls for NOAA to be broken up due to its position in the "climate change alarm industry" and says the government should charge for National Weather Service data that is currently free. Trump disavowed Project 2025 during his campaign, but many of his initiatives mirror or surpass the project's goals and he has placed some of its writers into administrative positions including key author Russell Vought, now the Trump administration's budget office director. The study concluded, after analyzing coverage of all storms during the 2024 season, that AccuWeather was, on average: 6.2% more accurate than the NHC and other sources for track forecasts 8.9% more accurate for storms that made landfall 8.6% more accurate for landfall location prediction 37.8% more accurate for landfall intensity forecasts 4% more accurate for maximum wind intensity forecasts Kantar said AccuWeather's storm track and intensity forecasts extended 25 hours further into the future than the NHC and all other sources for all 2024 storms, and 31 hours further into the future for those that made U.S. landfall. It also praised AccuWeather's proprietary RealImpact Scale for communicating the potential dangers of hurricanes as compared to the standard Saffir-Simpson Scale, which only measures windspeed. "We are very gratified by these results, which further support our mission of saving lives and protecting property," said AccuWeather Founder and Executive Chairman Dr. Joel N. Myers in a release. "This historic report marks the first time a third-party has verified that another source has been more accurate and more effective in predicting hurricanes and their impacts than NOAA's National Hurricane Center." Not everyone took the report at face value. "With professional respect to my colleagues at AccuWeather, this is a study *paid for* by AccuWeather that uses highly questionable methods and makes a number of false claims," Matthew Cappucci, a meteorologist for the Washington Post, in a series of posts on X. "AccuWeather claims to win 'all landfalling storms,' presumably with a U.S. bias... ...which allows them to completely throw out their absolutely erroneous forecast of a high-end Category 2 slamming into Florida. (It died over the Yucatan as a T.S.)," he said, referring to Tropical Storm Sara, a November 2024 storm that made landfall in Central America. "Case in point," Cappucci said. "AccuWeather wants to make a case that they were right from the beginning with regard to Francine, but then sweep many other forecasts, like that of Sara, under the rug." Dr. Levi Cowan, FSU meteorology grad and owner of forecast site pointed out that the report analyzed forecasts at 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 84 and 108 hours from the issued time. "But @NHC_Atlantic issues forecasts at lead times of 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 96, and 120 hours, making it unclear exactly how this analysis was done," he said in an X post. "Was interpolation of some data to a different set of lead times performed? Was mean absolute error or some other metric used? We don't know, because the report is opaque." In a release, AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter said that the important foundational work of the National Hurricane Center should in no way be disregarded. But AccuWeather, unlike most other weather services, uses its own data as well as data from the NHC. "The agency provides a vital life-saving service," he said. "Our work complements this effort and state and local agencies and companies that need the most accurate forecast of hurricane tracks and impacts ranging from storm surge to rain flooding to tornadoes to wind and water damage, we are not discouraging the use of the National Hurricane Center and the National Weather Service forecasts, but if you want the best and access to expert consulting meteorologists that you can speak to at any time 24/7, AccuWeather is the answer." AccuWeather is predicting the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season could bring: Named storms: 13 to 18 Hurricanes: 7-10 Major hurricanes: 3-5 Direct U.S. impacts: 3-6 NOAA is predicting a 60% chance of an above-normal season, a 30% chance of a near-normal season and a 10% chance for a below-normal season. Forecasters predict: Named storms: 13-19 Hurricanes: 6-10 Major hurricanes: 3-5 Colorado State University meteorologists predict: 17 named storms 9 hurricanes 4 major hurricanes Dr. Ryan Truchelut of WeatherTiger hedged his bets and predicted that the 2025 season has a 50-50 chance of landing in the ranges of: 16-21 tropical storms 7-9 hurricanes 3-4 major hurricanes Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAY, and Cheryl McCloud, USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida contributed to this story. This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Is AccuWeather more accurate than NHC? Critics call study unscientific
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
UK grocery inflation jumps to highest level in 15 months
Grocery price inflation in the UK jumped to 4.1% in the past month – the highest level since February 2024 – driven by the rising cost of butter, chocolate and sun cream, as Britons fired up the barbecue during a warm spring. Shoppers are increasingly searching out discount deals and turning to supermarket own-label products to help manage their budgets, according to analysts at Kantar, as the pace of price rises stepped up from the 3.8% reported in April. Fraser McKevitt, the head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said: 'Households have been adapting their buying habits to manage budgets for some time, but we typically see changes in behaviour once inflation tips beyond the 3% to 4% point as people notice the impact on their wallets more.' The discounter chains benefited from the search for bargains, with Aldi and Lidl enjoying their strongest period of combined growth since January 2024 at 8.4%. Lidl's sales rose almost 11%, making it the fastest growing physical grocer, to reach a new market share high of 8.1% – putting it within a whisker of overtaking Morrisons to become the UK's fifth largest supermarket. The chain drew 419,000 extra shoppers through its doors compared with last year – the most of any retailer. Aldi also reached a record high share of the market at 11.1% after sales rose 6.7%, its fastest growth rate since the start of last year. In contrast, Asda continued to struggle, remaining the only supermarket to record a drop in sales, down 3.2%. Despite this being its best performance in a year, its market share fell to 12.1%, only one percentage point more than Aldi. The chain was outperformed by the upmarket rival Marks & Spencer, where spending on groceries rose by 12.3% despite its recent difficulties caused by a cyber-attack. The Co-op increased its sales by 0.6% despite similar problems that have hit the availability of products in stores. Overall spending rose slightly ahead of inflation as shoppers snapped up burgers, salads and coleslaw during the hottest ever start to May. McKevitt said: 'We've been firing up the barbecues a bit earlier than last year, with chilled burgers flying off the shelves and sales growing by 27%.' The warm spring also helped sales at the DIY chain B&Q. The group's owner, Kingfisher, said sales at established B&Q stores rose almost 8% in the three months to 30 April, helped by 'strong seasonal sales', such as garden plants and furniture, as well as growth in big-ticket items, such as kitchens. The stronger-than-expected figures – the chain's best growth figures since 2021 during the pandemic boom in DIY and gardening – suggested that consumer confidence is holding up in the UK despite fears about the wider economy. However, Kingfisher said 'sentiment remains mixed' across its markets, which include France and Poland as well as the UK. Sign in to access your portfolio
