A market of two halves

The latest grocery share figures from Kantar Worldpanel, published today for the 12 weeks ending 23 January 2011 show an emerging counter trend this period with strong performances at both ends of the value spectrum.

Within the big four retailers, Sainsbury’s has had a strong entry into 2011 and is once again the only outlet to increase market share, from 16.3% a year ago to 16.6%. Among the other major grocery retailers Tesco and Asda have effectively matched market growth and held onto share but Morrisons has experienced a slight dip this period from 12.5% to 12.4%. However, it should be acknowledged that it is faced with strong year-on-year comparatives as its 12.5% share in January 2010 was a record performance for Morrisons.

Elsewhere in the grocery market, two contrasting sectors are experiencing robust growth. Edward Garner, Communications Director at Kantar Worldpanel, explains: “With growth of 7.1%, Waitrose continues to benefit from strong sales at Christmas, boosted by new shoppers this year at both existing and new stores. However, with a group of shoppers tightening their purse strings and seeking value we’re also seeing a counter trend at the other end of the retail scale. Although January is not traditionally a strong period for the discounters, both Aldi and Lidl have posted near 10% growth and lifted the total discounters’ market share from 5.9% last year to 6.1% in the latest period.”

The Co-operative has lost 0.6% market share in the latest period as a result of direction by the Office of Fair Trading to sell-off some Somerfield stores. However as Somerfield has now effectively ceased to exist, going forward the market share of The Co-operative will be a more accurate reflection of its performance. Finally, Iceland’s strong run has come to an end with year-on-year growth held at 2.1%, reflecting a flat performance for the frozen food market overall.

Watch the previous commentary here