UK’s ‘big four’ grocers lose more ground to German rivals

Morrisons was the best performer of the four over the 12 weeks to October 8, with sales up 2.8 per cent, followed by market leader Tesco’s sales increase of 2.1 per cent, Kantar Worldpanel said.

Sainsbury’s sales were up 1.9 per cent and Asda saw growth of 1.8 per cent, but Aldi and Lidl continued to outperform their major competition with sales up 13.4 per cent and 16 per cent respectively to collectively add £390million sales.

Christmas appears to have come early for shoppers as they snapped up £69million of chocolate confectionery boxes, £4million of mince pies and £1.1million of Christmas puddings over the past four weeks, Kantar’s figures show.

Sales overall were up 3.1 per cent compared with last year, the 17th period of growth in a row for Britain’s grocers.

Like-for-like grocery inflation remained at 3.2 per cent but consumers could be welcoming a slowdown in price rises in the new year, Kantar predicted, with the rate projected to fall below 2 per cent in the first quarter of 2018.

Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel, said: “Aldi and Lidl collectively added an additional £390million in sales this quarter, which accounts for half of the entire market’s overall growth this period.”

Figures from Nielsen for the four weeks ending October 7 show UK supermarkets’ sales revenue rose 3.9 per cent year-on-year while the volume of goods sold increased by just 1.6 per cent.

Mike Watkins, Nielsen’s UK head of retailer and business insight, said: “Supermarket food inflation, at 2.2 per cent, is at its highest for nearly four years, and retailers have done a great job of cushioning shoppers from the rising food chain costs they’re experiencing. “Inflation is helping supermarkets’ growth and the good news for them is that shoppers are still spending.

“Meanwhile, the good news for shoppers is that grocery inflation is still below that in other parts of the economy – such as travel and fuel – and should peak later in the year.”