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Kantar: grocery market sees fastest growth since November as discounters grow
The grocery market received a small boost this month, as Kantar’s latest data showed sales grew at the fastest rate since November in the 12 weeks to 23 February – but again it was the discounter and convenience that saw the greatest benefit.
Young man with a shopping cart is in a supermarket picking up wine.
Sales grew 0.7% over the 12 weeks, and while Kantar said the healthier performance would be welcomed across the sector, the “marginal increase” naturally benefited some retailers more than others.
Chief among these was Lidl, which saw sales up 11.4% making it the fastest growing supermarket for the first time since 2017, on the back of store expansion, as it opened its 800th UK store.
Kantar’s head of retail and consumer insight Fraser McKevitt said the new locations had helped to bring in nearly 900,000 additional shoppers to the supermarket this period – and its proportion of market sales has increased from 5.2% last year to 5.8%.
Lidl also saw a boost from Valentine’s Day boost, with combined sales of puddings, chocolates and alcohol up 17% – a benefit also seen at Aldi where booze sales rose 7%, helping overall sales rise 5.7%, and taking its market share to 7.9%.
Convenience retailer The Coop saw sales grow by 2.5% year on year, with its market share also rising to 6.0%.
Among the big four operations, only Sainsbury’s saw year-on-year sales increase, a rise of 0.3% the fist time it has seen growth since October.
McKevitt noted that it’s good performance has seen sales in its convenience stores and online grow, but “continued pressure” from the discount retailers meant it still lost market share, down 0.3% percentage points to 15.6%.
Sales at Tesco and Asda also dipped, down by 0.8% and 1.2% respectively and Morrisons saw sales fall 2.0% from the same period last year, with its market share also falling 0.2 percentage points to 10.2%.
Waitrose also saw sales down 1.3%, with a market share of 5.1% of the grocery market.