Morrisons and Tesco losing out

Kantar Worldpanel said till rolls were 2.4 per cent higher in the 12 weeks to February 2 as consumers remain cautious despite signs of economic recovery.

The figure includes inflation of 2.1 per cent.

Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and discounters Aldi and Lidl continued to increase market share but Tesco and Morrisons lost ground due to declining sales. Market leader Tesco still has 29.2 per cent of the market, ahead of Asda with 17.3 per cent.

The latest research figures are in line with recent updates after Tesco reported a 2.4 per cent drop in UK like-for-like sales over the six weeks to January 4 and rival Morrisons posted a 5.6 per cent fall in underlying sales.

Yesterday’s Kantar figures show Tesco’s sales fell 0.4 per cent in the 12-week period, while Morrisons was down 2.5 per cent.

Year-on-year sales growth of 2.7 per cent was enough to boost Sainsbury’s market share to 17.1 per cent from 17 per cent a year ago.

Asda’s sales were up 0.5 per cent compared with a year ago, but the Wal-Mart owned retailer still lost market share.

Aldi and Lidl together now account for 7.3 per cent of sales, up 1.3 percentage points from last year, while Waitrose sales were up 5.6 per cent compared with a year ago, helping it to grow its share of the market to 4.9 per cent.

Fraser McKevitt, retail analyst at Kantar Worldpanel, said that the brighter economic prospects were yet to be seen in the nation’s shopping trolleys.