Supermarket giant Tesco has seen sales rise for the first time in 18 months, with its market share rising for the first time in five years.
The retailer, who had been struggling over the last few years following a number of high profile scandals and falling sales, seems to be continuing its turnaround under new CEO Dave Lewis.
According to Kantar Worldpanel’s figures, Britain’s biggest retailer attracted an extra 228,000 thousand customers over the last 12 weeks. This has led to Tesco’s market share rising to 28.2 per cent, its first growth since 2011, and a 1.3 per cent increase in sales for the period. This success translated into the stock market, with shares rising 3.5 per cent, up to 208.3p.
Morrisons, Asda and Sainsburys – the rest of the ‘Big Four’ supermarkets – continued to see their market share shrink, with Aldi and Lidl the primary beneficiaries. Jonathan Neale, the joint managing director of buying at Aldi, said: “We continue to be the UK’s fastest growing supermarket adding an extra £157m of sales when compared to the previous year.”
Fraser McKevitt, the head of customer insight at Kantar, said: “Sales growth at Tesco has been strongest among family shoppers, while improved trading from its larger supermarket and Extra stores has supported this month’s gains.”
