Grocer Market Share UK - Austerity Bites

The latest grocery share figures from Kantar Worldpanel, published today for the 12 weeks ending 8 July 2012, show the grocery market growth rate falling back to 2.1% compared with 4.2% a year ago. Grocery price inflation now stands at 3.8% − a considerable drop from 6.2% which occurred as recently as November 2011.

Edward Garner, director at Kantar Worldpanel, explains: “We are seeing big cutbacks by consumers as they continue to respond to this current period of austerity. The success of the discounters, Aldi and Lidl, is a clear example of shoppers watching their purses, with both retailers continuing to surge ahead. Once again, they both achieve all-time record shares of 2.9% and remarkable growth of 26.1% for Aldi and 11.5% for Lidl. Similarly, although Waitrose is still growing at over double the rate of the whole market, this growth has fallen back to 4.8% from 7.5% last period − suggesting there are signs that the premium sector is beginning to slow.

“Another sign of austerity making an impact is the decline of the premium own label sector. Premium own-label products have been in continuous growth since 2008, despite often being more expensive than their brand equivalent. Now; however, they are declining by 6% year-on-year, while economy own labels such as Tesco’s Everyday Value are growing at 13%.”

Among the big four supermarkets, fortunes continue unchanged with market share growth for Asda and Sainsbury’s and share dips for Tesco and Morrisons.

Edward Garner adds: “Frozen food continues to be the top-growing food sector, as consumers look to reduce waste, and this has helped Iceland to continue the upward trend it has enjoyed since 2005.”

An update on inflation
Grocery inflation stands at 3.8%* for the 12 week period ending 8 July 2012. This continues the downward trend from the recent peak of 6.2% for November 2011 and reflects lower inflation for fresh produce and falling milk prices.

Watch the previous commentary here.