UK: Asda’s Market Share At All-Time High; Tesco’s Slips Again

The latest grocery share figures from Kantar Worldpanel for the 12 weeks ending 18 March 2012 show the market growing at 4.0%.  This remains below the 5.5% grocery inflation rate meaning shoppers are having to take advantage of the current crop of special offers and make selective purchases to manage down their ‘personal’ inflation.

Edward Garner, director at Kantar Worldpanel, commented: “The findings make particularly good reading for Asda. Its 17.9% share is an all-time record performance and its year-on-year growth rate of 7.8% is leading the big four, largely thanks to the full integration of its Netto stores.

"Elsewhere, Tesco’s growth rate of 2.7% still lags behind the market and results in a drop in share.  However, it is an improvement on the growth rates seen so far this year.  Both Sainsbury’s and Morrisons’ shares remain unchanged from the same period last year.”

Waitrose, Aldi and Lidl continue to out-perform the market, particularly so in the case of Aldi with year-on-year growth of 28.5%.

Garner added: “The frozen food market remains buoyant and this has helped Iceland to enjoy 10.2% growth – good news for the new consortium owning the chain.”

Kantar Worldpanel - Update on Inflation
Grocery inflation stands at 5.5%* for the 12 week period ending 18 March 2012. This is unchanged from the previous report.  This remains above the market growth of 4.0% this period and means that households are still trying to rein in grocery spending by managing down their ‘personal inflation’

*This figure is based on over 75,000 identical products compared year-on-year in the proportions purchased by British shoppers. 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.

These findings are based on Kantar Worldpanel data for the 12 weeks to 18 March 2012. 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,

www.kantarworldpanel.com

Published: 27 March 2012