Consumer Snippets – 12 June 2026

High income households driving premium growth

The March Asda Income Tracker highlights extent of the two-speed UK consumer.

The lowest quintile is £74 per week underwater after essentials, down 5.5% YoY, and the second quintile has just £11 of headroom, down 15%.

The bottom 40% of households have very little discretionary spend. The top quintile, by contrast, has £921 a week, up 1.8% YoY, more than the bottom four combined.

Spending growth is concentrated at the top, favouring operators with affluent exposure (premium hospitality, travel, experiences) over value and mid-market names, where the core customer could be cutting categories rather than trading down.

Fullers results this week are a good representation of this, with 4.9% LFL growth in FY26 despite the noise around the UK consumer as they focus on the premium customer.