Tesco’s market share takes a fresh tumble
TESCO endured a double blow yesterday, as it suffered a fresh drop in UK market share in the latest Nielsen figures, and set a leaving date for its long-standing director Andrew Higginson.
The supermarket giant’s share of the UK grocery market fell 0.5 percentage points on a year ago in the three months to 4 February – in spite of its £500m “big price drop” campaign that sparked a profit warning last month.
It now accounts for 28.6 per cent of grocery spending in the country, with rivals Asda and Sainsbury catching up fast, Nielsen figures showed.
Only the Co-operative did worse than Tesco for sales growth, posting a 1.2 per cent drop compared to Tesco’s 1.5 per cent rise.
Nielsen said the overall grocery market held up well post-Christmas, with headline sales growth of 3.5 per cent.
Higginson, who joined the Tesco board in 1997 and played a big part in setting up the firm’s banking arm, said he would quit last year, soon after Philip Clarke took the reins.
Graham Pimlott will replace him as chair of Tesco Bank later on 27 February, the firm said yesterday. Deanna Oppenheimer, the former chief executive of Barclays’ UK retail and business banking arm, is also taking a spot on the Tesco board.