Aldi’s and Lidl’s sales in the UK continue to grow despite “sluggish” growth in the market, according to Kantar Worldpanel.
The latest grocery share figures from Kantar are for the 12 weeks ending August 16, 2015 that compared to one year ago there’s been an increase in sales of 0.9%.
Fraser McKevitt, Head of Retail and Consumer Insight at Kantar, said that it’s been another successful period for the discounters with growth at Aldi accelerating to 18%.
“Lidl’s sales have also risen, up 12.8%, taking its market share to a new high of 4.1%,” he said.
Sales at Tesco in the UK fell by 0.9% and the retailer now holds 28.3% of the market, according to Kantar.
Buoyant growth in the convenience stores and online has not been enough to offset lower revenues in the larger shops, it says.
Morrisons’ increased decline of 1.1% this month reflects a tougher comparison against last year, Kantar says, when a widespread voucher promotion was in place.
As anticipated, Asda has retaken its position as Britain’s second largest supermarket, despite a fall in sales of 2.5% and a 0.6 percentage point fall in market share.
“The retailer’s greater focus on non-food items means its market share is traditionally higher in the summer, and it’s expected that Sainsbury’s will again become the number two retailer towards Christmas,” McKevitt said.
McKevitt says that industry growth of around or below 1% has now persisted since summer 2014 and has become the new normal.
“Despite the accelerating British economy like-for like grocery prices are still falling, with a representative basket of everyday items now 1.7% cheaper than in 2014,” he says.
Waitrose has had another successful period, with its ‘Pick Your Own Offers’ promotion helping to drive growth of 3.7%, Kantar says.
For the second month in a row there is also growth at the Co-operative, with sales at the till up by 1.1% compared to last year, according to the grocery share.
Kantar says that Sainsbury’s is the only one of the ‘big four’ retailers to have seen an increase in sales, which are up by 0.1% – its first growth since March.
Image: Kantar Worldpanel