Grocery Market Share UK - Market Polarisation Intensifies

All-time record shares for Waitrose, Aldi and Lidl

The latest grocery share figures from Kantar Worldpanel, published today for the 12 weeks ending 14 April 2013, show an increasingly polarised grocery market as Waitrose, Aldi and Lidl all posted record market shares.

Edward Garner, director at Kantar Worldpanel, explains: “Aldi has set two records in the latest period, with its highest ever growth of 31.1% delivering a record market share of 3.4%. Lidl’s market share of 3.0% is also an all-time high for the retailer.

“Pressure on household budgets is undoubtedly driving some of the growth at the discounters, but messages about quality are starting to resonate. Lidl announced this week that it will increase its fresh meat and poultry floorspace by 50% within the year, and Aldi’s new ‘convenience’ store in Kilburn is a departure from its traditional edge-of-town offering. These changes are likely to appeal to a new and different group of shoppers which will bolster the performance of the discounters even further.”

Meanwhile, the strong performance of Waitrose has continued, leading to a record share of 4.9%. Shoppers rate Waitrose highly in terms of provenance and clearly-defined supply chains – important credentials in the wake of the horsemeat scandal and factors which have clearly boosted sales at the retailer.

Within the big four, Sainsbury’s has again delivered the strongest growth with 5.4% and is the only one to increase market share, now at 16.9%. Tesco’s market share currently stands at 29.9%, Asda’s at 17.5% and Morrisons’ at 11.5%.

An update on inflation

Grocery inflation stands at 3.8%* for the 12 week period ending 14 April 2013. This is a fall from the 4.2% in our last report and is now only slightly higher than the market growth of 3.6%. This represents a welcome respite in the pressure on household budgets.

*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.