The UK grocery market returned to growth amid ongoing Brexit uncertainty, latest data reveals.
New data published by Kantar shows that year-on-year supermarket sales grew over the 12 week period.
Overall sales increased by 0.5% and volume sales were flat, Kantar said.
In its report, Kantar added that there is little evidence of stockpiling at the moment in the lead up to the Brexit deadline.
The August Bank Holiday provided some relief, Kantar added. Retailers have struggled with last year’s comparisons as this year’s poor weather was no match for 2018’s summer heatwave. That said, the August Bank Holiday was one of the hottest ones yet and shoppers spent £1.3 billion across the weekend.
“Lidl reached a new record high market share and has crossed the 6% market share line for the first time,” Kantar said in its report.
Lidl unveiled a £500 million London investment earlier this year in June.
“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 £1.2 billion annually,” Kantar continued.
Additionally, Aldi increases its sales by 6.3% and its strongest growth came from the south of England where sales grew by almost 9%. Aldi’s lowest market share, however, continues to be in London.
For Sainsbury’s (LON:SBRY), the 12 weeks were its strongest period since last October – it was the best performing out of the big four retailers for the second consecutive month.
Asda (NYSE:WMT) and Tesco (LON:TSCO) saw a sales decline of 1% and 1.4% respectively, according to Kantar.
Ocado (LON:OCDO) was the retailer to grow the fastest and only one year remains until it begins to sell products from M&S in addition to its own lines and national brands.
Shares in J Sainsbury plc (LON:SBRY) were trading at -0.5% as of 09:25 BST Tuesday, Tesco plc (LON:TSCO) shares were also down, trading at -0.38% as of 09:26 BST. Shares in Ocado Group plc (LON:OCDO) were trading at +1.11% as of 09:29 BST Tuesday.
