Official figures released today revealed growth in retail sales are at a decade-long high rate thanks to late Easter promotions and warmer weather.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) also said retail sales jumped by 1.3% between March and April beating analysts forecasts for a 0.5% rise.
Food sales during the late Easter holiday made a significant contribution to the overall figure, the ONS said.
They were 6.3% higher in April against a year earlier, and 3.6% up on March.
Non-food sales rose by 6.5% compared with a year earlier, but were down 0.4% on the month.
Deloitte UK head of retail Ian Geddes said: "It is encouraging to finally see some strong figures in the food sector, as this remains a challenging market for the large grocers who are vigorously responding to consumers’ changing retail habits and, are currently implementing significant structural reorganisation.
"This is clearly a long race and the large grocers are repositioning themselves to win over customers in the new, more complex era of multichannel retailing."
