UK food sales picked up last month, despite a poor June, according to data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

Like-for-like food sales edged up by 0.9% in July, the figures revealed yesterday (8 August). Total food sales increased by 3.6%.

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Joanne Denney-Finch, chief executive of IGD, said that July’s food and drink sales show “some encouraging improvement”, partly due to better weather towards the end of the month.

“The new wave of fuel-related promotions by supermarket retailers may have succeeded in bringing forward some purchasing,” she said. “Food retailers, together with manufacturers, are responding with new ways to help shoppers keep to a budget via coupons, meal deals and price campaigns.”

However, she added that shoppers were only tempted into stores by “an unprecedented number of promotions” which come at the expense of margins.

Nonetheless, total high street sales grew at their fastest annual pace in July, the figures revealed.

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Like-for-like sales were 0.6% higher than in July last year, when sales increased by 0.5%. Sales were up by 2.5% against a 2.6% increase in July 2010.

However, the BRC also warned that much of July’s rise was due to clearance sales and that “consumer confidence needs to be restored quickly before spending paralysis sets in”.

BRC director general Stephen Robertson said it is “a modest improvement” on recent months but overall “conditions remain very difficult” for retailers.

“When you take into consideration inflation and January’s increase in VAT, 2.5% growth effectively means people are buying fewer goods,” he said.