The latest grocery market share data from Kantar shows that supermarket Sainsbury’s has outperformed its leading rivals over the last 12 weeks, despite overall supermarket sales growing at 0.7 per cent for the period, the fastest rate of growth since last November.
Sainsbury’s was the only one of the traditional large grocers to increase year-on-year sales, with spend up by 0.3 per cent as it returned to growth for the first time since October 2019. Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said, “Sainsbury’s has performed well this period despite a challenging market, growing sales in its Sainsbury’s Local convenience stores as well as online. It’s worth noting, however, that continued pressure from the discount retailers meant the retailer still lost market share this month.”
Among the rest of the big four, sales at Tesco and Asda dipped by 0.8 per cent and 1.2 per cent respectively. Meanwhile, Morrisons sales were 2.0 per cent lower than the same period last year, and as a result its market share fell from 10.4 per cent to 10.2 per cent.
Lidl took the crown as Britain’s fastest-growing grocer for the first time since November 2017, with overall sales up by 11.4 per cent. Aldi’s sales were up by 5.7 per cent, with the retailer particularly strong in alcohol, and chilled convenience items – such as dips and prepared salads.
Fraser McKevitt added, “Lidl has been benefiting from its store expansion programme for a number of years, hitting a landmark in February by opening its 800th British store. The new locations have helped to bring in nearly 900,000 additional shoppers to the supermarket this period, and its proportion of market sales has increased from 5.2 per cent last year to 5.8 per cent.”
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