Talysis report highlights Scotland’s regional resilience
SCOTLAND remained the only region where convenience stores were in sales growth across the whole sector whilst the remainder of the UK saw a decline.
According to the ‘Convenience 2025: A review of the year in UK Convenience’ report from market research firm Talysis, while the convenience market saw a decline across most of the UK in 2025, Scotland bucked the trend with a year-on-year growth of 3.9% for the channel across the country.
Talysis said that the reason behind the convenience sector’s success in Scotland could be down to the country’s regional resilience in the face of rising inflation with a heavy influence from consumers shopping more locally during the cost of living crisis.
Despite the success seen in Scotland for the convenience channel, the wider picture for the UK paints a more bleak outlook. According to Talysis, the whole of the UK convenience sector was down 1.7% in growth terms with the continued impact of inflation reducing discretionary spend from consumers.
Additionally, the ban on disposable vapes, which was introduced in June 2025, had a “disproportionate effect” on the convenience market due to its heavy reliance on the overall tobacco category.
This was evidenced by the sharp decline in sales for the wider tobacco category across UK convenience. Talysis said that the tobacco category saw the largest value decline across the sector, with a drop of £583million when compared to 2024.
Despite the poorer performance from the tobacco category, Impulse options have firmly established themselves in the channel as soft drinks, confectionery and alcohol all delivered meaningful value growth for convenience stores with sales up £264million, £89.4million and £51.3million respectively.
Soft drinks stands out as a clear growth engine for the convenience market, accounting for 17.5% of total convenience value sales across the UK. This has been driven, predominantly, by the energy/sports drinks category, innovation in the space as well as NPD all helping to drive up footfall and impulse spend.
When it comes to alcohol, RTD options remain king and have rapidly gained share across the off-trade. Supported by chilled availability and impulse, RTDs have shown growth across every region and are on-track to challenge, if not overtake, cider in 2026 says Talysis.
Ed Roberts, managing director at Talysis, said: “Our Convenience 2025 report provides a wide-ranging and insightful look into a hugely important part of the UK grocery market, based on accurate, robust and up to date information.
“These are challenging times for convenience operators and the extra burdens created by the disposable vaping ban, increased business costs and ongoing inflationary pressures mean that only the best will survive in the long-run. However, it’s not all doom and gloom out there and there are opportunities for retailers to capitalise on.
“Focusing on customer missions, high-growth categories, agile implementation, and clarity in pricing will be critical to driving growth in a challenging market. Convenience retailers will need to demonstrate their long-standing resilience and ingenuity once more as we go through 2026, but there are some positives to take from our findings.”
