Losses for the big four in the UK

The latest grocery share figures from Kantar Worldpanel, published today for the 12 weeks ending 30 March 2014, show what appears to be a dramatic market slowdown, with growth of only 0.6% ‒ however this is distorted by the late falling of Easter this year, which was included in the 2013 period but not in the current data. Kantar Worldpanel estimates that Easter accounts for market growth of 0.9%. This means that a ‘corrected’ market growth would stand at 1.5%, which is still low by historical standards.

Edward Garner, director at Kantar Worldpanel explains: “Amid a challenging market backdrop, individual retailer growth might be expected to be restricted. This is certainly not the case for Aldi which achieved its highest ever growth of 35.3%, boosting the retailer to a record market share of 4.6%. Lidl also experienced strong growth in a record breaking month, and now accounts for 3.4% of the market.

“All of the ‘big four’ supermarkets have faced declining sales over the past 12 weeks, which has been accentuated by the late falling of Easter. Nevertheless, they have also seen worrying share declines, with the most resilient performance coming from Asda this period.

Waitrose continues to hold on to its record 5.0% share reached last period, while The Co-operative appears to have stemmed its share losses, managing to hold its current 6.1% share over our past four reports. Frozen food outlet Farmfoods is performing well, reaching a record share of 0.8%.

Our next update will be delayed by one day because of the May Day bank holiday so will appear on Wednesday May 7th 2014 – but still at the earlier time of 9.30am.

An update on inflation

Grocery inflation stands at 1.8%* for the 12 week period ending 30 March 2014. This remains at the lowest level since July 2010 and offers some respite for hard-pressed household budgets.

*This figure is based on over 75,000 identical products compared year-on-year in the proportions purchased by 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.