Morrisons beats Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s to grow market share
ONLY WM Morrison managed to improve its market position in the 12 months to the end of May, as the supermarket sector shake-out continues to pound the big four grocery chains.
Morrisons sales edged up by 0.1 per cent on the year, as its market share held flat at 10.9 per cent.
Aldi stormed up the rankings, according to figures from Kantar Worldpanel, increasing sales by 15.9 per cent on the year, increasing its market share from 4.7 per cent to 5.6 per cent. Fellow discounter Lidl’s sales also rose 8.8 per cent, taking its market share to 3.9 per cent.
Meanwhile, the biggest supermarket, Tesco, saw its sales slide 1.3 per cent and its market share dip from 29 per cent to 28.6 per cent.
Asda’s decline was even sharper, with sales down 2.4 per cent and its market share falling to 16.6 per cent.
And Sainsbury’s sales slid 0.3 per cent, taking its share of the market to 16.5 per cent.
“All of the major supermarkets are finding growth difficult, as prices have been declining since September 2014,” said Kantar’s Fraser McKevitt.
But McKevitt said the squeeze may be easing: “While like-for-like groceries are 1.9 per cent cheaper than this time last year, this is not as steep a fall as last month, when prices were down by 2.1 per cent.”