E.Leclerc has reached a market share of 21.9% in the French grocery market, according to the latest market share data from Kantar, with the retailer posting its strongest ever four-week performance.
The data, for the P5 period (April 15 to May 12), saw E.Leclerc increase its market share by 90 basis points compared to the same period last year, with its performance driven by an increase in the number of loyal customers (+1.1%).
Gap Widens
The gap between E.Leclerc and second-placed Carrefour has widened, the figures show, with Carrefour posting a market share of 19.2% for the period, which was down on the 19.7% it reported for this period last year.
This is Carrefour's weakest period of the year so far – just last month, the retailer stood on 20.4%.
In third place, Intermarché has made gains, seeing its market share rise to 15.2%, up from 15.0% in the same period last year, while Groupe Casino sits on 11.1%, down from the 11.7% it reported at this stage last year. Système U is on 10.5% market share, down 20 basis points on the same period last year.
Discounters On The Move
The period was also positive for the discounters, Kantar said, with Lidl seeing a 40-basis-point increased in market share to 5.9%.
'Lidl is recruiting nearly 400,000 additional households per year and is gaining loyalty at the same time thanks to higher basket values, Kantar said.
Aldi, too, saw an increase in market share, rising by 10 basis points to 2.3%, with the discounter recruiting 165,000 households in the past year, according to Kantar.
Overall, the French grocery market rose by 2% in the period, with this 'sudden acceleration' related to the Easter calendar effect, as well as higher basket values, according to Kantar.
Hypermarkets increased their market share in the period by 40 basis points to 52.5%, whole Supermarkets saw a decline of 60 basis points, to 24.5%, the data showed. Hypermarket performance was largely driven by the positive gains by E.Leclerc.
Analyst Viewpoint
Commenting on the data, analyst Bruno Montyene of Bernstein Research said that E.Leclerc posted a "material step-up on the weakness we saw last period (just +2bps share gains). We had hypothesised that last period could have been negatively impacted by the timing of Easter (falling in this period this year, but earlier period last year).
"A potential explanation could be Leclerc trading better in Easter periods, with the average performance across the two periods (+46bps) being more in line with Leclerc's performance in recent months," he added.
For Carrefour, however, the prognosis is less flattering, with Monteyne saying the retailer's performance was "behind the trailing-12-month average of -21bps market share losses. Without sales momentum, we find it difficult to get behind the turnaround. We also track Kantar's customer perception index, where in P04 (the tracker is lagged 1 period), Carrefour's index was down -1.7 points (-2.5 pts trailing-12-month average)."
In addition, Montyene noted that Casino posted its biggest market share losses since 2013 in the period, "with all banners losing share, which has been a trend for the last 3 periods: Géant -1bp, Supers -9bps, Franprix - 15bps, Monoprix -7bps, and notably Leaderprice -46bps."
© 2019 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.
