Soft drinks and food to go were the growth categories for convenience during the last quarter of 2025, new research has revealed.
According to the latest Lumina Intelligence Convenience Tracking Programme, for the 13 weeks to 28 December 2025, growth within the convenience channel was driven by soft drinks, with energy being a major player in the category shifts.
Energy drink’s share of basket occasions rose 1.2ppts in Q4 2025 when compared to the same period in 2024. Cola also figured quite highly, rising 0.9ppts.
Lumina revealed that in-store purchasing continues to dominate shopper behaviour, with symbols & indies driving year-on-year growth. In total convenience, ‘at the shop’ transactions made up 93.5%, up from 92.8% in the previous year. Transactions ‘delivered through a website/app’ were down from 6.1% in Q4 2024 to 5.5% in Q4 2025.
Food to go proved to be a boon for the channel, increasing its share of occasions by 1.8ppts to 17.6% year-on-year. This was attributed to more time-pressed shoppers and higher purchasing levels among affluent, young families. Newsagent as a mission dropped 1.4ppts over the year.
Promotional activity within symbols and independents grew from 31.6% in Q4 2024 to 32.7% in Q4 2025, with chilled foods leading the way in the channel. The forecourt sector saw promotional activity drop year-on-year from 54.1% in Q4 2024 to 49.8% in Q4 2025. Meanwhile, the percentage of shoppers buying price-marked packs in Q4 of 2025 rose 4.8% year-on-year, with symbols and independents tracking in line with this (+4.6ppts).
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