There were few surprises in store from this morning’s Retail Sales Statistics which delivered some good news from the grocery sector. Phil Mullis, Partner and Head of Retail and Wholesale at top-20 UK accountancy firm, Wilkins Kennedy, said: “Quantities purchased overall increased by 0.3% thanks to support from food stores, which experienced strong growth compared to June’s figures. There could be two reasons for this, either we are experiencing price inflation on food, or people actually splashed out more on their grocery shop than just key staples. Hopefully, if the latter, then it could be a good sign for consumer confidence, although there is still some way to go.”