Euros seeing ‘huge increase’ in beer sales as football fans cheer England on, Ocado reports

Football fans have been buying a beer or few to consume while cheering England on since the Euros got underway, latest data from Ocado suggests.

As Gareth Southgate's squad got prepared to meet Italy in the championship final on Sunday, the online grocery retailer revealed that its latest data shows a "huge increase" in sales of beer and lager since the Euros started - even those not on promotion.

On Wednesday night, when England beat Denmark in a nail-biting semi-final, Ocado's same-day delivery service, Ocado Zoom, saw sales of IPAs rise by 550% on the same day a week earlier, while lager sales more than doubled.

Ocado said analysis of trends on its site in recent weeks show Britons are most often searching for lagers Corona, Desperados, Peroni and Moretti.

Many fans are also searching for pale ales to enjoy while watching games, the search trends show.

It appears many England fans are also looking for some classic British snacks to enjoy with their mid-game beer. Ocado said searches for sausage rolls on ocado.com are up 200% compared to the month before the Euros began.

The FTSE 100 firm has seen millions embrace digital shopping since the pandemic hit.

Its retail arm, a joint venture tie-up with Marks & Spencer, saw first-quarter sales rise 40% to £599 million. The partnership launched in September after M&S replaced Waitrose as a grocery supplier to Ocado.

In April it revealed it is to invest £10 million in software specialist Oxbotica, to help develop technology for a range of self-driving vehicles it can use, including “kerb-tokitchen robots”.

The company, which is led by Tim Steiner, said the ultimate ambition is to enable its clients “to reduce the costs of last-mile delivery and other logistics operations”.