Supermarket sales static as discounters romp ahead

Sales at UK supermarkets are nearly static and have grown less than 1% for the sixth consecutive month, according to figures out today.

Supermarket growth stood at just 0.9% in the 12 weeks to the 13 September compared with the same period in 2014, said retail insight company Kantar Worldpanel.

The Big Four (Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons) continued to struggle with competition from the discounters and an ongoing supermarket price war that helped take grocery inflation to -1.7%.

See also: Why discounters could be the best deal yet for farmers

Tesco, Asda and Morrisons all lost market share compared with the same period last year, while discounters Aldi and Lidl romped ahead, increasing their market share by 17.3% and 16% respectively.

About 56% of British households visited Aldi or Lidl in the past 12 weeks.

Aldi is fast catching up with Waitrose and now holds just 0.3% less market share than the premium supermarket. 

Sainsbury’s was the only one of the Big Four to keep up with the grocery inflation in the 12 weeks to 13 September, while Asda managed to maintain its position as the UK’s second biggest retailer, despite sales slipping 2.9%.

Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel, said: “With shoppers moving their custom away from the traditional, larger-size supermarket stores, online sales are continuing to boom and are up by 12% compared with a year ago. 

“Almost 7% of grocery sales are currently purchased via the internet and existing online supermarkets will be watching closely to see when Amazon Fresh will launch in the UK and whether it will steal market share or grow the online market even further.”