The latest Kantar Worldpanel market share data for France has just been published, with Leclerc retaining its market leader status, holding 21.0% share for the four-week period to 24 December; the same market share it held this time last year.
Carrefour, on 20.5% share, has lost 20 basis points' worth of ground on its key rival since this time last year, when it sat on 20.7% market share.
In third place, again on the same market share level as this time last year (14.4%) is Intermarché. Kantar Worldpanel said that Intermarché was one of the 'big winners' at the end of 2017, as a result of more loyal customers and on the back of a strong TV advertising presence towards the end of the year.
Groupe Casino sits on 11.4% market share (the same as last year), while Auchan (10.6%) and Système U (10.5%) are pretty much neck and neck, the data shows. Lidl, which holds 5.4% market share, a 20 basis points increase on the same period in 2017, was another winner during the period, with an additional 200,000 shoppers visiting its stores.
Notably, Kantar Worldpanel also said that the online channel is one of the 'most dynamic' in France at present, accounting for 5.8% of general retail sales in 2017, an increase of 40 basis points on the previous year.
Analysis
Commenting on the Kantar Worldpanel figures, Bruno Montenye of Bernstein Research noted that food inflation in France is on the increase, rising to 1.5% in November, however, this is being mirrored by improvements in the French macro environment (consumer confidence is up), which "might have driven trading-up and increased volume over Christmas".
While Carrefour has shown signs of improvement, Monteyne noted, "Overall the results for Carrefour are unspectacular: supers and hypers (including online) lost 30bps of share in December in line with the YTD performance, so we are not yet seeing a dramatic improvement. In our view the weakness seen this year is driven by consumers switching to Leclerc for its better prices, stronger online proposition and increased promotions."
Elsewhere, Barclays European Food Retail Equity Research noted that on a four-week basis, food retail sales growth was +4.2%, compared with +2.3% in the previous period.
'This strong growth illustrates the accelerating food inflation and more buoyant consumer environment at the end of 2017 in France,' it said. 'The main winners during the period were independent retailers Intermarché (+36bps vs +35bps last time), which might be partly attributable to a 65% increase in the banner’s advertising budget during the period. Discounters Aldi and Lidl gained +4bps each.
'Even though their performances improved sequentially, the main losers during the period were again the large hypermarket operators, including Carrefour hypers (-18bps vs -43bps last time) and Auchan (-14bps vs -20bps last time).'
The Kantar Worldpanel data is determined from a sample of 20,000 panelist households.
© 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.
