Ambient and frozen foods are losing share of space to chilled in Britain’s supermarkets.

Ambient grocery products take up an average of 39.2% of shelf space in a supermarket - down from 39.9% in 2010, according to research by Nielsen. Frozen products also lost out over the same period, with share of space shrinking from 5.1% to 4.7%.

Chilled and food-to-go were the big winners, with chilled fresh food up 0.9 percentage points to 12.1%, and food-to-go rising from 0.6% to 0.9%.

Non-food also gained - particularly clothing - but Nielsen said it expected this to fall as sales shifted online. “Chilled food is well positioned to gain from this as retailers capitalise on convenience,” said analyst Andy Carpenter.

But in BWS - where beer and cider had lost shelf space to wine - faced a tough challenge. “Falling consumption, tax rises and reduced profitability means BWS can only hope to keep its share static,” he said.

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