23rd Sep 2014 09:00
LONDON (Alliance News) - Market share and sales continue to be stolen by heavy discounters and upmarket grocers from the UK's biggest supermarket chains, although Wal-Mart-owned Asda continues to fair better than its three other rivals - Tesco PLC, J Sainsbury PLC and Wm Morrisons Supermarkets PLC - according to the latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel published Tuesday.
Tesco's market share in the 12 weeks to September 14 slid to 28.8%, down from 30.2% a year earlier, while its sales fell by 4.5% in the period.
While Tesco faced the biggest fall in sales during the 12 week period, Morrisons saw its market share fall to 10.9%, compared with 11.1% in the same period last year, with sales declining 1.3% year-on-year.
"There is no sign yet of recovery at Tesco...Morrisons? market share remains under pressure...although the rate of decline has slowed considerably as its fresh food promotional voucher scheme has taken effect," said Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel.
Supermarket chain Sainsbury's, which had been outperforming the other two in recent years, also posted a fall in market share and sales - with sales declining 1.8% year-on-year and its market share shrinking to 16.2% from 16.6%.
In contrast, Asda, owned by US retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc, saw sales inch up 0.8% in the period, and increased its market share to 17.4%, up from 17.3% last year.
Waitrose, owned by the John Lewis Partnership, German discounters Aldi and Lidl, and privately own Scottish frozen food chain FarmFoods are all faring better despite the tough market conditions, snapping up both sales and market share.
"Aldi has continued its run of double-digit growth, which now stretches back to February 2011, by recording a sales increase of 29.1% compared with last year. Similarly, Lidl has increased sales by 17.7%, showing that shoppers still have a strong appetite for the discount stores," said McKevitt.
At the other end of the market, Waitrose grew sales faster than in previous months, up 4.5% year-on-year, bringing its market share up to 5.1%, from 4.9% in the same period last year.
According to Kantar, grocery price inflation posted its twelfth successive fall and now stands at 0.0%.
Tesco shares were trading 3.6% lower at 195.80 pence Tuesday morning, while Sainsbury's shares were down 3.2% at 270.00 pence, and Morrisons down 2.0% at 175.40 pence.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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