The latest Kantar Worldpanel market share data for the French market has indicated that Intermarché was the top performer in the four week period to 19 March.
The Les Mousquetaires-owned group posted a market share of 14.4% for the period, which is 30 basis points higher than in the same period last year.
Système U also posted a 30 basis point increase in market share, albeit off a lower base; the retailer saw its share rise to 10.8%, from 10.5% in the same period last year.
Also enjoying an increase in the period were Lidl, which rose by 10 basis points year-on-year to sit on 5.7% share, and Aldi, whose market share rose by 20 basis points to 2.5%.
Market Share Declines
The country's two biggest grocers, Leclerc and Carrefour, each saw marginal declines, with Leclerc dropping by 10 basis points to 21.1% for the period, and Carrefour down 20 basis points to 20.7% share.
There were also declines for Groupe Casino, whose share fell 10 basis points to 11.2%, and Auchan, which saw a 20 basis point decline to 10.4%.
If taken over a two-year period, Carrefour and Auchan have shown the biggest declines in the French market; Carrefour stood on 21.7% at this stage two years ago, meaning that the Boulogne-Billancourt-based operator has seen its share drop by a percentage point since March 2016.
Auchan has seen a 70 basis point decline over the same period.
Appraising the latest figures, Kantar Worldpanel's Gaëlle Le Floch said that "French household spending rose by just 0.3% in P3 2018, an increase of just 0.1% over the first 12 weeks of 2018."
Commenting on Intermarché's performance, she added that the retailer "captured a few more customers over the period and recorded higher value baskets (+ € 0.8 per basket). Intermarché doubled its media investment in P3."
On Aldi, which posted the "highest absolute growth rate in the market", Le Floch noted that the discounter's growth can be attributed to the "current upgrade of its store portfolio."
Analyst Viewpoint
Commenting on the figures, analyst Bruno Montyene of Bernstein Research said that the figures indicate some "real problems at Carrefour", with the group's hypermarkets down 70 basis points to 10.3% market share.
"One positive we can draw from the data is Carrefour's convenience offering, which grew market share by +30bps (ahead of the market's +10bps)," he added. "We think that having exposure to this fast-growing segment will become increasingly important."
Monteyne pointed out that Leclerc has now suffered three consecutive periods of market share losses, which is "largely due to the overlap in Intermarché and Leclerc's customer base, with the former gaining at the expense of the latter".
In terms of Casino's decline, this can be attributed to its Leader Price division losing 20 basis points of share.
© 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.
