All of the ‘big four’ supermarkets – Asda, Morrisons, Sainsburys and Tesco – lost market share in the last quarter, as discount chains and premium competitors saw growth, Kantar Worldpanel has revealed.
Aldi and Lidl continued to perform strongly, with Aldi’s sales growing 11.4 per cent, while Lidl’s grew 14.2 per cent in the three months to 22 May.
Another chain to see growth was Waitrose – owned by the John Lewis Partnership – with its market share rising to a record-high of 5.3 per cent, with sales increasing 2.1 per cent.
However, the major supermarkets all suffered hits to their sales. Asda was the worst affected, with sales dropping 5.1 per cent, and although Tesco’s sales fell 1 per cent, this was the smallest decrease in sales for the company in two years. Tesco has the largest market share with 28.3 per cent, despite falling 0.3 per cent.
It isn’t all bad news for the major supermarkets however, as figures indicate they are still attracting strong numbers of customers.
“While the big four are struggling to keep their market share what’s clear is that consumers aren’t flocking away from their stores – their combined shopper numbers have dropped only 0.2 per cent in the latest 12 weeks,” said Edward Garner, director at Kantar.
“In fact, 94 per cent of Aldi and Lidl shoppers still visit at least one of the four major retailers every four weeks.
“However, consumers’ spend is increasingly being shared with other growing outlets which also include Waitrose, the Co-operative and Iceland and average household spend for the big four has dropped by 2.9 per cent.”
