Discounters Gain More Market Share In UK

The latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel show that Aldi has seen its market share in the UK grow by…

The latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel show that Aldi has seen its market share in the UK grow by a third over the last year.

The group saw total till revenue in the three months to 2 February, excluding fuel, rise to £1.1 billion. Those results were 32% above the same period last year, according to Kantar Worldpanel. It now has 4.1% total market share.

Fellow German-based discounter Lidl also saw double digit growth in the three months. Lidl's till receipts reached £854.8 million in the period, taking its share to 3.2%.

Meanwhile Sainsbury’s was the fastest growing of the big four supermarkets. Tesco and Morrisons lost market share as a result of declining sales. Asda also lost market share after failing to match the 2.4% market growth.

Britain's biggest chain, Tesco, saw a drop of 0.4% while number four Morrisons saw sales decline 2.5%.

Asda and Sainsbury's, which were equal second with 17.1% of the market, and reported rises of 0.5% and 2.7% respectively.

"Grocery market growth slipped slightly to 2.4%, indicating that brighter economic prospects are yet to be seen in the nation's shopping trolleys," Fraser McKevitt, retail analyst at Kantar Worldpanel said.

"The slowest industry growth since 2005 made it hard for many of the biggest retailers to increase sales. However, shoppers felt the benefit as grocery inflation fell to only 2.1%," Mr. McKevitt added.

The figures come on the same day the British Retail Consortium said retail sales across stores that have been open for over 12 months were 3.9% higher in January than a year earlier, while sales in all stores grew 5.4% over the same period.