Tesco records best growth in 18 months
New figures on the UK grocery market show that Tesco put in its best sales performance in 18 months in the 12 weeks to 1 March although the grocery sector in general was impacted by deflation reaching a new low.
The latest grocery share figures released by Kantar Worldpanel reveal that Tesco’s sales rose by 1.1% in the period to take its market share to 28.7% which is down just 0.1 percentage point compared with last year.
Kantar said Tesco’s resurgence impacted Asda whose sales declined by 2.1% to take its market share to 17%.
Meanwhile, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s both grew behind the market average with sales falling by 0.4% and 0.5% respectively. This took their respective markets shares to 11% and 16.8%.
Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel, said: “A combination of lower general inflation and the grocery price war has saved shoppers £400 million in the past 12 weeks, with deflation driven to a record low of -1.6%.
“All of the major supermarkets are cutting prices to win shoppers, especially within everyday staples such as eggs, vegetables and milk.
“Retailers are focusing their efforts on simple price cuts rather than complicated ‘multibuy’ deals.”
Aldi grew its sales by 19.3% compared with a year ago, its slowest rate of growth since June 2011, but it was enough to take the discount retailer to a new record market share of 5%. Fellow discounter Lidl also performed well, with growth of 13.6% to increase its share to 3.5%.
Sales at Waitrose increased by 4.9% while its market share was 5.2% in the period.
