Squeezed UK shoppers flock to promotions -Nielsen

* Grocery sales up 2 pct on year in 4 weeks to March 19

* Promotions account for 40 pct of sales, a record high

* Food price inflation rises to 4.5 pct

LONDON, March 29 (Reuters) - Britons are buying a record
level of groceries on promotion as they try to offset a squeeze
on incomes from rising prices, tax increases and public spending
cuts, market researcher Nielsen said on Tuesday.

"Shoppers are really feeling the pinch," said Mike Watkins,
Nielsen's senior manager of retail services.

"This is now starting to impact supermarkets which have so
far proved resilient to such economic factors."

Nielsen said grocery sales rose 2 percent year-on-year in
the four weeks to March 19, almost half the rate of the previous
four weeks and echoing the findings of fellow market research
group Kantar Worldpanel. [ID:nLDE72S13U].

Goods on promotion are accounting for around 40 percent of
sales, a record high, as shoppers try to counter a pick-up in
food price inflation to 4.5 percent from around 1 percent this
time last year, Nielsen said.

Following is a summary of Nielsen's findings for the 12
weeks to March 19:

% Share of total grocery market spend

12 wks to 12 wks to Value sales

19/03/11 20/03/10 pct change y/y
Tesco (TSCO.L) 27.8 27.6 2.2
Sainsbury(SBRY.L) 15.5 15.2 2.9
Asda (WMT.N) 15.2 15.2 1.6
Morrison (MRW.L) 11.0 10.8 3.0
Co-Op* 7.1 7.8 -7.9
Waitrose [JLP.UL] 3.9 3.7 5.2
M&S (MKS.L) 3.4 3.4 1.4
Iceland 1.8 1.8 2.8

* Somerfield was bought by the Co-Op in 2008 and some of its
stores were sold to win approval from competition regulators.
(Reporting by Mark Potter; Editing by Erica Billingham)