Grocery Market Share UK - Christmas and New Year

Festive grocery share figures from Kantar Worldpanel, published today for the six weeks ending 6 January 2013, show the grocery market growing at 3.8% over Christmas and the New Year, driven by price inflation rather than volume growth.

Edward Garner, director at Kantar Worldpanel, comments: “These festive trading figures show a dead heat between Tesco and Sainsbury’s in the battle for Christmas. Both posted identical growth rates of 3.9% – just ahead of the total market – and market shares unchanged from a year ago. This represents a clear improvement in Tesco’s fortunes following a series of share dips in 2012 but it is also a strong performance from Sainsbury’s which had been predicted to suffer disproportionately from the Tesco fight-back by some commentators.”

The small Asda share dip represents a bedding-in of the Netto acquisition with its 17.7% share strong by historical standards for this period. Morrisons’ sales decline is consistent with previous reports.

Edward continues: “Waitrose’s strong performance over the seasonal period is reflected in its 8.6% growth rate, which is over twice the market average. Although this six week report is, strictly speaking, not comparable with our usual 12-week series it is worth noting that the Waitrose share is higher than any previous share we have reported for the retailer.

“Elsewhere, shoppers continued to seek value for money with ongoing positive performances for Aldi, Lidl and Iceland.”