Carrefour is now 80 basis points behind French market leader E.Leclerc, despite there being as much as a 170-basis-point gap between the two just a month ago, the latest market share data from Kantar Worldpanel has found.
Carrefour stands on 20.3% market share, according to the P1 2019 data for the four weeks from 24 December to 20 January, with E.Leclerc holding 21.1% of the market.
As recently as P13 2018, in December of last year, Carrefour was on 19.9% market share to E.Leclerc's 21.6%.
Hypermarket Growth
In the current period, Carrefour saw a good performance from its hypermarkets, seeing their market share rise to 10.5%, thanks to a gain of 250,000 additional customers, Kantar Worldpanel reported.
'This recruitment took place despite the reduction in advertising investment by 14% and the decline in Carrefour's prospectus share over the period,' the group noted.
Intermarché holds third place in the French market, with 14.8% market share, while Groupe Casino is in fourth, on 10.9% share. The retailer saw a marginal increase in sales at its Géant hypermarket business, which rises to 2.8% share.
Auchan is level with Système U in terms of market share, on 10.6%, with the latter seeing 'good progression' in its hypermarkets, supermarkets, and Drive channels, according to Kantar Worldpanel.
The biggest mover is Lidl, however, which sees a 30-basis-point increase, to sit on 5.9% market share for the period. The discounter has recruited additional customers, as well as lifting its average basket size in the period, Kantar reported.
Analyst Viewpoint
Commenting on the findings, Bruno Monteyne of Bernstein Research noted that the overall market picked up "significantly" in this period, with growth of 3.5%, compared to 1.8% in the previous period.
"This P1 swing is mainly due to the extra Christmas Eve trading day in the period, which is both a very busy trading day and a day where channel mix is very different from usual," Monteyne said. "Part of the step-up in FMCG growth could also be a weakening of the yellow-vest impact."
In terms of market leader E.Leclerc, Monteyne noted that the group has now posted four periods of consecutive market growth.
"It seems as if they are continuing where they left off in 2018: on the front foot," he said.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
