Lidl and Aldi achieve record market share
German-owned discounters Lidl and Aldi achieved all time record market share for the twelve weeks ending 17 April 2011 according to the latest grocery share figures published by Kantar Worldpanel.
Aldi saw year-on-year sales increase by 15% and Lidl by 14.7%. Aldi’s market share grew to 3.3% and Lidl’s to 2.6%.
After the discounters, the next highest grocery growth was posted by Waitrose at 7.7%. This provided further evidence that not everyone is responding to economic pressures in the same way.
The figures also highlighted that major share growth is proving difficult for the top four retailers. Only Morrisons out-performed the market to lift share from 11.8% a year ago to 11.9% for the same period this year.
Edward Garner, communications director at Kantar Worldpanel, said: “While the discounters are performing well this trend is not a re-run of 2008 when new shoppers turned to these outlets in response to the recession and 9% food price inflation. Currently, discounter growth is fuelled by existing shoppers sharply increasing their spending levels.”
He continued: “Last period, the grocery growth rate plunged from 3.9% to 2.6%, suggesting that shoppers’ purses had snapped shut. This period, growth has recovered somewhat to 3.6%. Part of the reason for this is the late timing of Easter in 2011. Seasonal products such as flowers, hot-cross buns, lamb and, of course, Easter eggs all showed sharp decreases over the same period last year as Easter was much earlier. However, this year there may well be a degree of catch-up taking place as Easter markets peak later.”
Kantar Worldpanel monitored the household grocery purchasing habits of 25,000 demographically representative households in the UK.
