Grocery spend in France was up 12.4% in the four week period from 20 April to 17 May, which includes the final three weeks of lockdown, according to data from Kantar.
The data showed that while French households made fewer shopping trips during the period (-0.8%), they spent on average €7.80 more per visit.
Strong Performers
According to the data, Les Mousquetaires was the strongest performer in the four week 'P5' period, seeing its market share rise by 1.5%, to put the group on 16.5% market share.
The group's Intermarché banner alone saw a 1.2% increase in share to stand on 15.2%.
Other positive performers include Groupement U, which recorded a 0.8% increase in share to put it on 11.2% overall, Lidl, which was up 0.6% to 6.6%, and Aldi, which rose 0.2% to 2.5%.
Market leader E. Leclerc saw a 0.6% decline in market share in the period, however the retailer still holds more than a fifth of the overall market (21.3%).
Carrefour's hypermarket business saw a 1.9% decline in share in the period, to 8.2%, due to more consumers shopping locally amidst the coronavirus epidemic. The retailer's supermarket division was up 0.8%, however.
Elsewhere, Auchan's hypermarket operations similarly took a hit, seeing a 0.9% decline in share, to 6.5%.
Channel Growth
As in previous periods, the online channel has proven to be the big winner in P5, garnering an additional two million client households to put it on 9.6% market share (+3.3%).
The supermarket and proximity channels each grew by 1.7%, largely taking share away from the hypermarket channel, which fell by 6.9% market share – losing around 2.2 million households in the process.
Commenting on the data, retail analyst Olivier Dauvers said that the ending of lockdown measures in France means that the forthcoming four week period (P6) is likely to show some "return to normality".
© 2020 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.