FOI reference: FOI-2024-2324
You asked
I am seeking the following data from ONS under the Freedom of Information Act 2000:
- The sales figures of the independent store sector, symbols store sector and Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Aldi during January 2023 to September 2023 and January 2024 to September 2024.
- If info is available, the reason for sales lagging/rising
- The five top selling categories of the independent store sector, symbols store sector and Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Aldi during 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 so far.
The symbol store sector is refers to a type of franchise model for convenience stores. These stores are part of "symbol groups," which do not own or operate the shops directly. Instead, they act as suppliers to independent shops that trade under a common banner or brand, like Londis, Costcutter or Spar.
We said
Thank you for your freedom of information request.
Unfortunately, we do not collect sales figures by independent store sector or symbols store sector. We don't hold information on our business register to identify businesses that belong to the independent store sector or symbols store sector, and therefore do not have breakdowns for these groups.
Data are collected under Standard Industrial Classification. Our Retail sales release does collect turnover data from retailers each month for different employment bands for the periods requested.
Sales data for 'Predominantly food stores' with a 'Large Business' (those with employment greater than or equal to 100) and 'Small Businesses' (those with employment less than 100) are available in our Dataset: Retail sales pounds data.
Some narrative on the reasons for changes in retail sales for industries is available in our monthly Retail sales release.
Our Retail sales release does not collect detailed product/commodity data. A high-level commodity breakdown with the following titles is provided by some large retailers:
Food, drink and tobacco
Clothing and Footwear
Household goods
Other non-food
If you wish a sales breakdown of the 'Predominantly food stores industry' with this commodity breakdown then please contact retail.sales.enquiries@ons.gov.uk
Regarding your request for data pertaining to particular retailers, we are unable to disclose personal/business level information. Section 39 of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 (SRSA) renders it a criminal offence to disclose information held by our organisation for statistical purposes that would identify an individual or a body corporate. As we are prohibited by law from publishing statistics in which individual businesses can be identified, Section 44(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) applies.
The following link provides some more information about the legislation we are bound by: Relevant legislation - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk).