Sainsbury’s shares lifted by strong performance but hottest day fails to revive flagging grocery sales
Sainsbury’s led FTSE 100 risers this morning following the news the supermarket had put in its strongest performance since November 2017.
The supermarket put in the strongest performance of all the big four grocers, but still saw its market share slip 0.6 per cent over the past 12 weeks, according to Kantar data released this morning.
Tesco, Asda, and Morrisons saw drops of 1.6 per cent, 1.5 per cent, and 2.7 per cent respectively.
Read more: Big Four supermarkets stall amid fast rise of Aldi and Lidl
“The memory of last year still looms large for retailers and this summer’s comparatively poor weather, combined with low levels of like-for-like price rises, have made growth hard to find, said Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar.
While overall year-on-year sales were flat, Lidl, Aldi and Ocado all saw their market share increase.
Online grocer Ocado was the UK’s fastest growing supermarket, increasing its market share by 12.6 per cent. Ocado’s overall market share now stands at 1.4 per cent, but it is responsible for 18 per cent of all online grocery sales.
Sainsbury’s shares climbed 2.39 per cent to 192.85p in morning trading, pushing it to the top of the FTSE 100 risers. Ocado was the third biggest riser, up 1.95 per cent to 1,227.5p per share.
Lidl reached a record market share of 5.9 per cent – a rise of 7.7 per cent. Lidl was boosted by “a raft of new store openings”, said McKevitt, helping the retailer attract an additional 489,000 shoppers during the period.
“[Lidl’s] campaign to encourage people to do their main weekly shop at Lidl is making an impact and the average basket spend is now nearly £19, 3% higher than last year, though still significantly lower than the £22.65 average spend at the big four,” he added.
Aldi was also a strong performer, increasing its market share just over 6 per cent to 8.1 per cent.
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