Grocery Market Share UK - Paralympic Gold For Sainsbury?s

The latest grocery share figures from Kantar Worldpanel, published today for the 12 weeks ending 30 September, show Sainsbury’s has delivered strong growth of 5.6% lifting its share from 16.2% a year ago to 16.5% now.

Edward Garner, director at Kantar Worldpanel, explains: “Among the big four supermarkets, the stand out performance is from Sainsbury’s. Its sponsorship of the Paralympic games has clearly borne fruit, boosting its sales in this period. The retailer has also been bolstered by its Brand Match promotion and the ongoing relaunch of its own label range – both of which are proving popular with consumers.

“It has also been a record-breaking period for Waitrose, posting its highest ever share of 4.7% and building on the strong performance we have seen over the past decade.”

The grocery market as a whole is growing at 3.9%. This is above the Kantar Worldpanel inflation measure of 2.6%* meaning that, despite a background of austerity, there is currently real growth in the market.

Asda has also out-performed the market adding 0.1 share points – this is lower than the growths seen earlier this year as the effect of the Netto stores acquisition drops out of the year-on-year comparisons.

The results of Sainsbury’s and Asda contrast with Tesco and Morrisons which have both lost share over this period.

Edward Garner concludes: “The growth of the discounters and Iceland continue to be a strong feature of the market. In particular, Aldi has been delivering growth in excess of 20% per year since mid-2011 – clear evidence that value for money allied to a growing emphasis on product quality is encouraging shoppers to increase their loyalty to the outlet.”

An update on inflation

Grocery inflation stands at 2.6%* for the 12 week period ending 30 September 2012. This continues the downward trend from the recent peak of 6.2% in November 2011. However, this situation is threatened by stubbornly high world food prices as a result of poor grain harvests in the USA, Russia and Ukraine.

*This figure is based on over 75,000 identical products compared year-on-year in the proportions purchased by British shoppers and therefore represents the most authoritative figure currently available. 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.

Watch the previous commentary here.