Market leader E.Leclerc was the standout performer in the French grocery market in December, seeing a 1.4% increase in value share in the month, Kantar has said – the tenth consecutive month in which the group has seen an increase of 1% or more.
E.Leclerc accounted for 24.2% of spend in France in the P13 period, covering the four weeks to 24 December, with Kantar also noting that customer numbers are up 'significantly', and the retailer now has more loyal shoppers.
Online sales accounted for 36% of the growth of E.Leclerc in December, it added.
Best Of The Rest
Elsewhere, Les Mousquetaires achieved a 0.6 percentage point increase in value share in the period, accounting for 16.1% of sales, with its Intermarché banner (13.7% market share) rising by 0.5 percentage points.
Intermarché gained an additional 593,000 new customers in the period, while also expanding its store count by 17 stores. Les Mousquetaires' Netto brand, meanwhile, reported a 0.1 percentage point increase in value share, to account for 0.8% of spend in December.
Le Groupement U was another retailer to see growth in the period, gaining 0.3 percentage points to account for 11.9% of spend in P13. According to Kantar, U's growth was seen across all store formats – hypermarkets, supermarkets, internet and proximity stores.
Online Makes Gains
The online channel saw a noticeable gain in share in December, gaining 0.8 percentage points to account for 10.2% of the overall market. This increase was driven by an additional 527,000 consumers shopping online, Kantar said.
Overall French spending on FMCG increased by 6.7% during the period.
Kantar's data is sourced from a sample of 20,000 Worldpanel panellist households, and measures spend in hypermarkets, supermarkets, discounters, proximity stores and online.
