The budget grocery chain Iceland is to delay launching its autumn range, including an expanded choice of pies and pastries, this year in response to increasingly warm September weather.
Richard Walker, the executive chair of the Deeside-based retailer, said Iceland had decided to push back its seasonal shift towards increasing the range of pies, pastries and other cool-weather favourites available in stores – and associated promotional activity – by two weeks from its historic norm to mid-September.
“We have decided to push it back because the UK is getting wetter, cooler summers and warmer Septembers,” he told the Guardian.
Walker suggested that retail businesses were having to adapt to increasingly erratic weather caused by the climate crisis.
In 2023, the hottest June on record was followed by a relatively cool and wet July and August, with September marked by a lengthy heatwave. The hottest day of last year was 10 September, at 33.5C – only the fifth time it has fallen in September since observational records began, according to the Met Office.
“Last summer was a washout and it makes it hard with seasonal plans,” Walker said. This year “terrible weather” in early summer and erratic conditions in July had made it difficult to predict demand, he added.
Other grocery businesses said they had not delayed their autumn promotions, which were pegged to the end of the school summer holidays and households starting to plan for Halloween and Christmas.
Sainsbury’s said it had always launched its autumn food ranges in mid-September. Waitrose said it used a “dynamic ordering system”, which adjusted store supply orders using weather forecasts. It is expecting sales of fresh British berries, which are benefiting from the warm spell, to continue into the later months of 2024 if the good weather continues.
Events such as the Euro 2024 football tournament – where the progress, or otherwise, of the England and Scotland teams had an effect on sales – also made for big ups and downs in retail trading this summer.
The end of July has marked a shift in sentiment for retailers after a difficult spring and early summer, especially for fashion businesses, which have benefited from a run of better weather after rain and cool temperatures limited demand for summer gear.
Even the well-run clothing and homewares chain Next revealed that the weather had knocked trading, with full price sales in the UK up just 0.4% in the three months to 1 August.
Total retail sales in England, Scotland and Wales slumped in June by more than forecast as cautious households reined in their spending amid poor weather, election uncertainty and the cost of living crisis.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show retail sales volumes were estimated to have fallen by 1.2% in June, after a rise of 2.9% a month earlier. City economists had predicted a shallower 0.4% decline.
