2nd Jun 2015 09:37
(An item published Tuesday at 1008 BST misstated the day the Kantar data was released. The correct version is as follows.)
LONDON (Alliance News) - Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC is the only member of the big four supermarkets to experience increased sales according to Kantar Worldpanel UK's grocery market data published on Tuesday.
Morrisons sales rose 0.1% in the 12 weeks to May 24 to GBP2.78 billion from GBP2.77 billion in the same period a year earlier, although its market share remained the same at 10.9%.
?Morrisons has returned to growth for the first time since December 2013 with a marginal sales increase of 0.1% ? a welcome boost for new CEO David Potts. A committed core of loyal Morrisons consumers is responding positively to recent initiatives, and business has been boosted by online sales. Morrisons? performance is an improvement on what was a difficult May 2014, so this is only the first step in any future recovery,? Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel said.
J Sainsbury PLC was the second best performer of the big four, with an annual sales decline of 0.3% in the period to GBP4.18 billion from GBP4.19 billion. Its market share also remained the same at 16.5%.
Tesco PLC came in next with a sales decline of 1.3% to GBP7.28 billion from GBP7.37 billion a year before, and a market share decline to 28.6% from 29.0%. McKevitt said that a strong performance from the Tesco Express convenience stores and its online channel were not enough to compensate for falling sales in the larger outlets.
The worst performer of the big four was Wal-Mart Stores Inc-owned Asda, whose sales fell 2.4% to GBP4.23 billion from GBP4.34 billion. Its market share also declined to 16.6% from 17.1%.
Meanwhile, German discounters Aldi and Lidl both performed strongly, growing sales by 15.7% and 8.8%, respectively. Aldi's market share rose to 5.4% from 4.7%, while Lidl's grew to 3.9% from 3.6%.
?All of the major supermarkets are finding growth difficult as prices have been declining since September 2014. Yet while like-for-like groceries are 1.9% cheaper than this time last year, this is not as steep a fall as last month, when prices were down by 2.1%. This means that if current trends continue, prices will once again start rising by the end of the year,? McKevitt said.
UK grocery inflation now stands at negative 1.9% for the period, meaning shoppers are now paying less for a representative basket of groceries than they did in 2014. Kantar said the increase from the negative 2.1% reported last month is the first time since October 2013 that inflation has not fallen.
Morrisons shares were down 0.7% at 168.20 pence on Wednesday following the report, while Tesco shares were down 2.1% at 205.30p and Sainsbury's shares were down 2.5% at 241.80p.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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