Discount supermarkets Aldi and Lidl have continued to go from strength to strength in the third quarter but other major supermarkets saw another set of poor results, according to new figures from Kantar Worldpanel.

In the 12 weeks to 8 November Aldi and Lidl reached a combined share of 10% of the British grocery market for the first time – doubling their market share over the last two years. Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel, says:

“In the last 12 weeks the two retailers have attracted another additional million shoppers compared with last year while average spend per trip has increased by 4% to £18.85, which is 78p ahead of the total retailer average. The discounters show no sign of stopping and with plans to open hundreds of stores between them, they’ll noticeably widen their reach to the British population.”

Sainsbury’s also had a positive quarter, winning the first share gain among any of the ‘big four’ retailers since October 2014. Its market share increased by 0.2 percentage points to 16.6 percent.

“Sainsbury’s has seen its fourth consecutive period of growth, flying in the face of tough market conditions. It’s 1.5% increase in sales was sufficiently ahead of the market for the retailer to increase its share by 0.2 percentage points – the first share gain registered by any of the ‘big four’ retailers since October 2014”, McKevitt comments.

However, the rest of the troubled supermarket sector remains slow. Sales at Tesco fell 2.5 percent and Morrisons fell by 1.7 percent on the year before. Sales across the sector overall were only up by 0.5%, held back by persistently falling prices.

17/11/2015