Asda at an all-time high

The latest grocery share figures from Kantar Worldpanel, published today for the 12 weeks ending 18 March 2012, show the market growing at 4.0%. This remains below the 5.5% grocery inflation rate meaning shoppers are having to take advantage of the current crop of special offers and make selective purchases to manage down their ‘personal’ inflation.

Edward Garner, Director at Kantar Worldpanel comments:

“The findings make particularly good reading for Asda. Its 17.9% share is an all-time record performance and its year-on-year growth rate of 7.8% is leading the big four, largely thanks to the full integration of its Netto stores.

“Elsewhere, Tesco’s growth rate of 2.7% still lags behind the market and results in a drop in share. However, it is an improvement on the growth rates seen so far this year. Both Sainsbury’s and Morrisons’ shares remain unchanged from the same period last year.”

Waitrose, Aldi* and Lidl continue to out-perform the market, particularly so in the case of Aldi with year-on-year growth of 28.5%.

Edward adds:

“The frozen food market remains buoyant and this has helped Iceland to enjoy 10.2% growth – good news for the new consortium owning the chain.”

Watch the previous commentary here.