Strong Christmas: online, convenience and premium

The latest grocery share figures from Kantar Worldpanel, published today for the 12 weeks ending 5 January 2014, show Aldi, Lidl and Waitrose continued to record strong growth over the Christmas period. The online, convenience and premium sectors also performed well.

Edward Garner, director at Kantar Worldpanel, comments: “Among the big four, only Sainsbury’s was able to resist the relentless pressure from the discounters and Waitrose. Now catching up with Asda, it managed to hold share and out-perform the market with year-on-year growth of 3.1%.

“As revealed last week, Morrisons suffered the most among the major supermarkets with its share dropping from 12.0% last year to 11.5% now and a decline in overall sales of 1.0%. The absence of an online offering is a major factor in its decline with total internet grocery sales over the Christmas / New Year period growing at 22% with 15% of British households placing orders. However, the retailer has now begun deliveries via Ocado in the Midlands which might help it return to growth.”

Local convenience shopping is another fast growing sector with both Tesco Express and Sainsbury’s Local enjoying double-digit growth. Alongside this, the Co-operative registered modest sales growth of 0.4% and independents kept pace with the total market growth and held share. There was also strong sales growth from Farmfoods of over 40%, albeit from a low base.

Edward continues: “The pressure on household budgets is lessening with the Kantar Worldpanel measure of grocery price inflation standing at 2.5% - the lowest level since October 2012. Despite challenging market conditions, it was a ‘premium’ Christmas with both Tesco Finest and Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference ranges strongly out-performing their respective ‘Value’ equivalents.”

An update on inflation

Grocery inflation stands at 2.5%* for the 12 week period ending 5 January 2014. This is at the lowest level since October 2012 and offers a small respite for hard-pressed household budgets.