Aldi now the fifth largest UK supermarket
New figures on the grocery market have shown that Aldi is now the UK’s fifth largest supermarket.
The figures from Kantar Worldpanel reveal that the retailer increased its sales by 12.4% year-on-year in the 12 weeks ending 29 January. This meant its market share grew by 0.6 percentage points to 6.2%.
Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel, said: “Just a decade ago Aldi was the UK’s tenth largest food retailer, accounting for less than 2% of the grocery market. Since then the grocer has grown rapidly, climbing the rankings by an impressive five places to hold a 6.2% market share. Underpinned by an extensive programme of store openings, the past quarter has seen Aldi attract 826,000 more shoppers than during the same period last year.
“Despite being overtaken by Aldi, Co-op’s 2% sales increase was well ahead of the market, continuing a run of growth stretching back to July 2015. A significant own label sales increase of 7% was behind the strong performance, with healthier ranges successfully catering to consumers’ good intentions for the new year.”
Morrisons was the fastest-growing retailer within the big four as it increased its market share for the first time since June 2015 with a sales uplift of 1.9%. This meant its market share was 10.9% in the period.
Growing for the fifth period in a row, Tesco’s sales were up 0.3% year-on-year as its market share fell to 28.1%. Sainsbury’s sales remained flat and its share fell by 0.3 percentage points to stand at 16.5%.
Meanwhile, Asda saw a 1.9% fall in sales. Although its share dropped by 0.6 percentage points over the quarter, the retailer did manage to increase the number of shoppers visiting its stores compared to the same period last year.
Boosting sales by 3.4%, Waitrose increased its share of the grocery market to 5.3%. A 9.4% year- on-year sales increase for Lidl buoyed the retailer’s market share by 0.3 percentage points, leaving the discounter holding 4.5% of the UK grocery market.
