Asda has posted its strongest growth in more than five years to be the best performer of the UK’s ‘Big Four’ retailers in the latest round of Kantar Worldpanel market share figures.
The Walmart-owned grocer saw its sales rise by 3.7% in the 12 weeks to 15 July 2018.
It currently sits on 15.1% market share, according to Kantar Worldpanel.
Market leader Tesco, meanwhile, posted growth of 2.3%, however its the market share fell back by 0.3 percentage points to 27.6%.
Second placed Sainsbury’s market share declined by 0.4 percentage points to 15.6%, despite experiencing sales growth of 0.8%.
Rounding off the Big Four, Morrisons posted growth of 2.9%, to sit on a market share of 10.5%.
Asda Performance
Commenting on Asda’s performance, Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel, said, “Buoyed by a sales increase of 9% to its core, standard own-label lines – which make up 40% of its sales – Asda held market share steady at 15.1%.
“The retailer also encouraged an additional 230,000 shoppers through its doors over the past 12 weeks.”
Other strong performers included the Co-op, which experienced growth of 6.4% – its highest recorded since October 2011; Lidl, which saw sales increase by 9.7%; and Aldi, which saw its sales rise by 10.9% to reach a market-share high of 7.5%.
“Aldi and Lidl are now on the verge of hitting a combined market share of 13% for the first time, though the speculation over new entrants to the discount market could mean new pressures on the two retailers,” said McKevitt.
World Cup Boost
Overall, sales were up 3.6% for the period, the fastest rate of growth this year, driven by the World Cup and good summer weather.
Sales of categories such as firelighters and fresh burgers were up 47% and 30% respectively, Kantar said.
“Over the past month, football-frenzied customers visited supermarkets an extra 13 million times as they hurried to stock up on World Cup-viewing essentials, with alcohol in particular the stand-out winner,” said McKevitt.
“Christmas and Easter aside, the week that the England football team played both Colombia and Sweden saw more spent on alcohol than ever before – a colossal £287 million.”
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
