6th May 2015 09:25
LONDON (Alliance News) - J Sainsbury PLC is the strongest performer of the big four supermarkets, according to the latest Kantar Worldpanel UK grocery market data published on Wednesday.
Sainsbury's sales fell 0.2% in the 12 weeks to April 26 to GBP4.20 billion from GBP4.21 billion a year earlier. Its market share was slightly lower year-on-year, down to 16.5% from 16.6%.
"Performance has been boosted by the increased focus on non-food items and the chain?s strength in London, where grocery sales are growing faster than elsewhere in the country," Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel said of Sainsbury's performance.
Earlier Wednesday, Sainsbury's reported a pretax loss for its recently ended financial year, while its underlying profit before tax and revenue also fell, as it invested in price cuts to compete against its rivals in a deflationary food market.
The supermarket chain reported a pretax loss of GBP72 million for the year ended March 14, compared with a pretax profit of GBP898 million the year before. Its underlying profit before tax fell 15% to GBP681 million from GBP798 million, while underlying group sales fell 0.9% to GBP26.1 billion from GBP26.4 billion.
Meanwhile, Kantar said Tesco PLC sales declined 1.0% in the period to GBP7.20 billion from GBP7.30 billion, and its market share stands at 28.4%, slightly lower than the 28.8% reported in the same period in 2014.
Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC saw a sales drop of 1.1% to GBP2.76 billion from GBP2.79 billion, and its market share is at 10.9%, down from 11.0% a year before.
But the worst performer was Wal-Mart Stores Inc-owned Asda, whose sales fell 2.2% to GBP4.3 billion from GBP4.4 billion. Its market share is 16.9%, down from 17.3%.
German discounters Aldi and Lidl continued to perform well, with Aldi growing sales by 5.4% and Lidl by 3.8%, but this growth is slower than in recent months, suggesting the discounter momentum is starting to slow a little, Kantar said.
UK grocery inflation has seen its 20th successive fall and now stands at negative 2.1% for the period, meaning shoppers are now paying less for a representative basket of groceries than they did in 2014. Kantar said the inflation level is a record low since it started recording grocery price inflation in 2006 and reflects the impact of Aldi and Lidl's discounting policies on the price competitiveness of the market.
?Growth in the market has declined thanks to a record low for grocery price deflation: a typical basket of everyday items is now 2.1% cheaper than it was in 2014. Lower costs are the result of both falling commodity prices and the ongoing supermarket price war, with all major retailers offering cheaper like-for-like goods," McKevitt said.
Meanwhile, according to the British Retail Consortium, shop prices in the UK were down 1.9% in April, compared to a contraction of 2.1% in March and lower than forecasts of a 1.7% decline.
Food prices were down 0.9% for the second straight month, while non-food prices fell an annual 2.5% after losing 2.8% in the previous month.
Sainsbury's shares were down 2.6% at 267.80 pence on Wednesday, while Tesco shares were down 0.3% at 226.00p and Morrisons shares were up 0.7% at 188.70p.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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