Britain’s struggling supermarket industry found some respite in the last 12 weeks, with Tesco Plc’s sales decline easing and J Sainsbury Plc extending its growth streak.
Tesco’s revenue fell 0.8 per cent through February 28, according to a report from researcher Kantar Worldpanel, compared with the previous month’s 1.6 per cent drop. Sainsbury’s sales rose 0.5 per cent, the eighth straight advance. Overall industry sales growth of 0.5 per cent was the most since October.
Tesco’s "renewed focus on price promotions has helped stem the flow of shoppers leaving the retailer," Fraser McKevitt, Kantar Worldpanel’s head of retail and consumer insight, said by e-mail.
The market leader’s discounting contrasts with tactics employed by Sainsbury, which last month pledged to phase out promotional deals such as two-for-one offers by August. Both companies are battling to stem the longstanding encroachment of discounters Aldi and Lidl, which now have a combined 10 per cent share of the market. Sales continued to slide at Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s Asda and Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc.
Wm Morrison sales fell 3.2 per cent following supermarket closures and the sale of its convenience-store business Asda was disproportionately affected by an industry-wide trend of shoppers spending less in large supermarkets, Kantar said Aldi’s sales rose 15 per cent, while Lidl’s rose 19 per cent.
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