Aldi sales soar as Sainsbury’s slips behind rivals in supermarket shopping league

Aldi and Lidl have boosted sales again, it emerged today, as the biggest supermarkets continued to shed market share to the discounters.

Aldi’s sales grew by 10 per cent in the three months to the end of February compared to the same period the year before, according to figures released today by Kantar Worldpanel, a consumer insights group.

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It also upped its market share by 0.6 percentage points year on year to 7.6 per cent.

Lidl, whose sales grew by 5.4 per cent over the period, increased its market stake by 0.1 percentage point to 5.2 per cent.

But the outlook for supermarket incumbents was less bright.

Sainsbury’s – whose merger with Asda hit choppy waters last month as a watchdog appeared set to block it – saw sales shrink one per cent to £4.47bn, and its market share shrank by 0.5 percentage points.

The duo has a potential market share of 31.2 per cent should their proposed £12bn merger go ahead, but the Competition and Markets Authority signalled last month that it was unlikely to proceed, sending Sainsbury's shares crashing.

Tesco’s sales grew 1.3 per cent to hit £7.9bn over the period, £3.4bn more than its nearest rival, Sainsbury’s.

But its market share also slipped 0.2 percentage points to 27.7 per cent as the discounters continued to knock on the door of their bigger rivals.

Kantar Worldpanel suggest that one factor contributing to Aldi’s growth was the reduction of stigma surrounding discount shopping.

Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel, said: “That just isn’t the case anymore. Planning for the perfect date night, 10 per cent of the population bought chocolate, wine, steak, shellfish or a chilled dessert from Aldi during the week of Valentine’s Day.”

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Convenience supermarket Co-op achieved the third best sales growth at 3.6 per cent year on year, and attracted 244,000 shoppers through its doors compared to the same period in 2018.

Overall, grocery sales were up 1.9 per cent for the industry as a whole over the three-month period.