Pressure on big four grocers intensify as Aldi and Waitrose steal share

In the 12 weeks ending March 2, Tesco, Asda and Morrisons recorded declines in market share, according to research firm Kantar Worldpanel.

Tesco and Morrisons also experienced a sales drop.

Tesco’s share dipped 0.9 percentage points year on year to 28.7% while Morrisons dropped 0.7 percentage points to 11.1%.

Sainsbury’s was the only one of the big four grocers to hold its market share at 17% as sales edged up 2.2% over the period.

Aldi’s sales soared 33.5% year on year over the period as its market share jumped from 3.3% to 4.3%. Fellow discounter Lidl’s sales rose 16.6% as its market share increased from 2.8% to 3.2%.

On the other end of the scale, upmarket Waitrose also notched up a record share of 5% as sales increased 6.2%.

Kantar Worldpanel director Chris Longbottom said: “Over the past three years Waitrose, Aldi and Lidl have taken a combined 3.5 share points from the competition which equates to £4.4bn per year.   This has put pressure on the big four supermarkets to compete for a shrinking middle ground and cut prices to directly combat the discounters.”

Under pressure The Co-operative sales increased 0.7%. However it suffered a marginal drop in share from 6.2% to 6.1%.

The overall grocery market grew 2.2% over the period, representing a further slow down in growth from Kantar’s last reported sales period, which was the lowest since mid-2005.

Falling inflation is the main contributing factor for the stalling growth, Kantar found.