Sainsbury’s was the only major UK retailer to post a decline in sales in the 12 week period to 28 January, according to the latest Kantar Worldpanel market share figures, with the grocer seeing a 0.3% decline over the period to sit on 15.9% market share.
Tesco retains number one position in the UK market, with a 1.0% sales gain over the period putting it on 27.7% market share.
After second-placed Sainsbury’s, Asda holds 15.3% market share (+0.7% sales increase), followed by Morrisons, on 10.6% (+0.4%).
Kantar Worldpanel said that Tesco’s centenary pledge to celebrate ‘100 years of great value’ has helped boost sales at the grocery, with its Exclusively at Tesco fresh food lines performing ‘particularly strongly’.
Asda, it added was boosted by a strong online sales performance, which grew by double digits over the period.
Discounter Boost
The strongest performers in the UK grocery market for the period were Aldi, which saw sales up 9.1% to sit on 7.5% share, and Lidl, which saw sales up 7.3% to sit on 5.3% share.
Excluding the discounters, the Co-op also put in a positive performance, with a 3.5% increase in sales to sit on 5.9% market share.
“With the exception of the discounters, Co-op was the only retailer to gain market share over this 12-week period,” commented Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel. “An additional 346,000 consumers visited its stores, helping to buoy sales of its top-tier Irresistible range by 9%.”
Overall, sales across the UK grocery market were up 1.7% for the period, with grocery inflation rising by 1.3%.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
