Grocery market returns to growth as Lidl leads pack

Sales across the market rose 0.5% in the period to September 8, although volume was flat, the latest Kantar data showed.

Lidl’s revenues advanced 9.2%, taking its market share to 6%. Ocado’s sales rise was greatest overall, up 12.7% to give it a 1.4% share.

Sales at all of the big four grocers were down.

Kantar head of retail and consumer insight Fraser McKevitt said: “Lidl has crossed the 6% market share line for the first time, and an additional 618,000 shoppers visited the retailer compared with last year, helped by store openings, refurbishments and its newspaper voucher deals.

“Having moved through the 5% barrier as recently as May 2017, the retailer has taken just over two years to add another percentage point to its market share – one that’s worth £1.2bn annually.”

Warm weather over the late summer bank holiday helped grocers. McKevitt said: “All summer, retailers have faced tough comparisons with last year’s heatwave, and disappointing weather has made it hard for them match the highs of 2018.

“The forecast for August bank holiday was more than welcome and shoppers made the most of it being the hottest one on record, spending £1.3bn from Friday through to Sunday, which was marginally more than last year.”

However, over the period Tesco’s market share slipped from 27.4% to 26.9%. Asda was down from 15.3% to 15.1%. Sainsbury’s slipped from 15.4% to 15.3% and Morrisons from 10.2% to 9.9%.

There was no sign of panic buying on Brexit fears. McKevitt said: “As we move closer to October 31, it seems talk about stockpiling might be just that because we’re not seeing any evidence of it at the moment. In fact, households bought 0.9% fewer items during the past 12 weeks than they did last year.”