Retailers and manufacturers say the World Cup boosted sales beyond expectations. Sainsbury, the official supermarket for the English football team, said: "Before the World Cup had started, we had made more in sales of World Cup merchandise than we did throughout the World Cup in 1998." Asda said its beer sales had risen by 50% week-on-week during the World Cup. A spokeswoman for the Co-operative Group said: "Before England and Ireland games we noticed an uplift in beer, wine and snacks, particularly in convenience stores." Bagged snack manufacturers anticipate record sales in June due to an upsurge in consumers snacking. Walkers trade marketing manager Cath Painter said volumes of Doritos increased 29% in June compared to May with over 2.5 million incremental packs being sold. Walkers' new £7m Friendchips TV ad campaign promoted evening snacking. Golden Wonder category marketing director Kirsty Taylor said June sales were very buoyant' compared to the same period last year, with Wheat Crunchies and Nik Naks being the strongest performers. "There has been a definite boost despite half the matches being at the unsociable time of 7.30am," said Taylor. The brewers also benefited. Carling claimed 100 million pints were consumed in the period, including 24 million in the week before the clash with Denmark. Sales of Stella Artois were up, largely due to heavy discounting (see above). l Sales of bagged snacks are static year-on-year ­ find out why on p39. {{NEWS }}

Topics