diff --git a/test/kafka/kafka-client-loadtest/internal/consumer/consumer.go b/test/kafka/kafka-client-loadtest/internal/consumer/consumer.go
index e1c4caa41..1171bd5c0 100644
--- a/test/kafka/kafka-client-loadtest/internal/consumer/consumer.go
+++ b/test/kafka/kafka-client-loadtest/internal/consumer/consumer.go
@@ -39,7 +39,8 @@ type Consumer struct {
 
 // New creates a new consumer instance
 func New(cfg *config.Config, collector *metrics.Collector, id int) (*Consumer, error) {
-	consumerGroup := fmt.Sprintf("%s-%d", cfg.Consumers.GroupPrefix, id)
+	// All consumers share the same group for load balancing across partitions
+	consumerGroup := cfg.Consumers.GroupPrefix
 
 	c := &Consumer{
 		id:               id,
@@ -226,9 +227,9 @@ func (c *Consumer) runSaramaConsumer(ctx context.Context) {
 					log.Printf("Consumer %d: Error consuming: %v", c.id, err)
 					c.metricsCollector.RecordConsumerError()
 
-					// Wait before retrying
+					// Wait briefly before retrying (reduced from 5s to 1s for faster recovery)
 					select {
-					case <-time.After(5 * time.Second):
+					case <-time.After(1 * time.Second):
 					case <-ctx.Done():
 						return
 					}