Aldi and Waitrose post record market shares
Latest figures on the share of the grocery market show new records set by Aldi and Waitrose as pressure on the big four supermarkets intensifies.
Figures released by Kantar Worldpanel for the 12 weeks ending 2 March 2014, show that Sainsbury’s was the only big four supermarket to hold its market share year-on-year at 17% and to match the overall market growth of 2.2%. Tesco, Asda and Morrisons all recorded declines in share with Tesco and Morrisons also seeing a drop in actual sales.
Meanwhile Aldi’s year-on-year growth rate accelerated to a record 33.5% meaning the discounter now accounts for 4.3% of the market while Lidl held on to the record 3.2% it reached last period. Despite this, Waitrose shrugged off pressure from the discounters with its highest ever market share of 5%.
Chris Longbottom, director at Kantar Worldpanel, said: “Over the past three years Waitrose, Aldi and Lidl have taken a combined 3.5 share points from the competition which equates to £4.4 billion per year. This has put pressure on the big four supermarkets to compete for a shrinking middle ground and cut prices to directly combat the discounters.”
Kantar found that The Co-operative improved on historical performance with positive sales growth of 0.7% and only a marginal drop in share to 6.1% in the period.
The overall grocery market growth of 2.2% represents a further fall from last period which was the lowest since mid-2005. Falling inflation was the main contributing factor behind this with the Kantar Worldpanel measure now standing at 1.9% – the lowest level since July 2010.
