Aldi and Lidl Reach 10 Per Cent Share of The

17November 2015

Aldi and Lidl reach 10 per cent share of the

British grocery market for the first time

The latest grocery share figures from Kantar Worldpanel, published today for the 12 weeks ending 8 November 2015, show the combined share of discountretailers Aldi and Lidl has reached 10% of the British grocery market for the first time.

Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel, comments: “If you look back as recently as 2012 Aldi and Lidl only held a 5% share of the market, and it had previously taken them nine years to double their combined share from 2.5%. In the last 12 weeks the two retailershave attractedanother additionalmillion shopperscompared with last year while average spend per trip has increased by 4% to £18.85, which is 78p ahead of the total retailer average. The discounters show no sign of stopping and with plans to open hundreds of stores between them, they’ll noticeably widen their reach to the British population.”

Lidl’s market share reached a new record high of 4.4%, increasing by 0.7 percentage points on last year thanks to a sales growth of 19%. Aldi grew sales by 16.5%, keeping its market share at 5.6% for the fifth consecutive month.

Despite the ever more high-profile Christmas advertising campaigns launched by the supermarkets in recent weeks, the overall market remains slow. Sales were only up by 0.5%, held back by persistently falling prices which remained down by 1.7% on a like-for-like basis.

Fraser McKevitt continues: “Sainsbury’s has seen its fourth consecutive period of growth, flying in the face of tough market conditions. It’s 1.5% increase in sales was sufficiently ahead of the market for the retailer to increase its share by 0.2 percentage points – the first share gain registered by any of the ‘big four’ retailers since October 2014.

“Sainsbury’s performance means it has once again regained its position as Britain’s second largest supermarket, pushing ahead of Asda in the latest 12 weeks. The food-focused retailer traditionally increases its market share over Christmas, so we can expect to see it keep hold of second place for the time being.”

Sales fell at the rest of the major retailers – at Tesco they were down by 2.5% while Morrisons saw sales fall by 1.7%. With a raft of recent announcements including a range reduction and increasing click-and-collect opportunities in its stores, Asda will be looking to improve upon its decline of 3.5% in the coming weeks.

Growing revenues this quarter were Waitrose and the Co-operative, where sales were up by 2.7% and 1.5% respectively. The Co-operative’s market share gain of 0.1 percentage points to 6.3% is its first year-on-year share gain since 2011, when the benefits of the Somerfield acquisition were still being felt.

Ends

An update on inflation

Grocery inflation now stands at -1.7%* for the 12 week period ending 8 November 2015. This means shoppers are now paying less for a representative basket of groceries than they did in 2014. This is the same fall as reported last month. Falling prices reflect the impact of Aldi and Lidl and the market’s competitive response, as well as deflation in some major categories including eggs, butter, bread, crisps and fresh poultry.

*This figure is based on over 75,000 identical products compared year-on-year in the proportions purchased by shoppers and therefore represents the most authoritative figure currently available. It is a ‘pure’ inflation measure in that shopping behaviour is held constant between the two comparison periods – shoppers are likely to achieve a lower personal inflation rate if they trade down or seek out more offers.

Kantar Worldpanel has launched a new data visualisation tool that allows you to view and analyse Grocery Market Share data online. The latest sales share figures for all of the major grocers can be viewed and compared with historical figures here and all graphics within the Kantar Worldpanel dataviz are available to embed in your site. (Optimal viewing in recent versions of Internet Explorer or Chrome)

Follow us on Twitter at and join the debate #GroceryMarketShare.

Notes to editors

Please note that four week ending or six week ending retailer share data should not be used in media reporting. We would recommend that you use the 12 week ending data stated in this release, as it covers a longer time period which means it is a superior indicator of retailer performances and trends.

For all publicly-quoted Worldpanel data, users of our research (including media) must ensure that data is sourced Kantar Worldpanel.

These findings are based on Kantar Worldpanel data for the 12 weeks to 8November 2015. Kantar Worldpanel monitors the household grocery purchasing habits of 30,000 demographically representative households in Great Britain. All data discussed in the above announcement is based on the value of items being bought by these consumers, Kantar Worldpanel will only support data that is published in the context we have presented it and our own interpretation of these findings. We cannot be held responsible for any other interpretation of these findings.

For further information, please contact:

Alyona Levitin / Rebecca Daley
Camargue
+44 (0)20 7636 7366
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