Lidl sales help it hit record stake in UK supermarket sector
The biggest supermarkets shed yet more market share to discounters Aldi and Lidl in the three months to the start of December, new data out today reveals.
The big four grocers saw their collective market share drop by over one per cent to 67.7 per cent as people delayed their Christmas shopping and Black Friday failed to deliver a boost in sales.
Read more: Kantar boss to step down after London knife attack
Sainsbury’s saw sales slip 1.1 per cent to leave it with a 15.7 per cent stake while Asda and Morrisons saw their respective sales fall 1.9 per cent and 2.9 per cent respectively.
Tesco, the best performer of the big four, saw its revenue for the period slip 0.8 per cent to £7.54m to leave it with a 27.6 per cent stake in the supermarket sector.
Lidl benefited the most, seeing a huge 9.3 per cent jump in sales of £1.68m to snare a record high 6.1 per cent market stake.
Aldi was close behind with a 6.2 sales rise of £2.2m to hold an eight per cent share in the market.
Kantar: How supermarkets performed in Q3
| Supermarket | Sales | Market share |
| Aldi | £2.2m (+6.2 per cent) | 8 per cent |
| Lidl | £1.7m (+9.3 per cent) | 6.1 per cent |
| Tesco | £7.5m (-0.8 per cent) | 27.3 per cent |
| Sainsbury’s | £4.4m (-1.1 per cent) | 15.7 per cent |
| Asda | £4.04m (-1.9 per cent) | 14.6 per cent |
| Morrisons | £2.8m (-2.9 per cent) | 10.1 per cent |
| Co-op | £1.76m (+3.6 per cent) | 6.3 per cent |
| Waitrose | £1.34m (-0.8 per cent) | 4.8 per cent |
| Iceland | £611,000 (+3.2 per cent) | 2.2 per cent |
| Ocado | £384,000 (+13.7 per cent) | 1.4 per cent |
Ocado enjoyed a 13.7 per cent rise in sales of £384,000 to hold a 1.4 per cent stake in the grocery sector. That sent its share price up 1.2 per cent in early trading.
Overall grocers increased last year’s sales for the period by half a per cent to £27.7m, blaming bad weather and weak consumer demand for the modest rise.
“We’re yet to see consumers ramp up their spending in the run up to Christmas and, as anticipated, Black Friday only brought a limited boost for the grocers,” Kantar’s head of retail and consumer insight, Fraser McKevitt, said.
Read more: UK supermarkets’ plastic use rises despite green pledges
He blamed “promotion fatigue” for flagging Black Friday sales that saw the percentage of shoppers taking advantage of discounts slip from 57 per cent in 2018 to 53 per cent this year.
“The event is always less significant in the supermarket calendar and this year only 5 per cent of Black Friday deal hunters bought something from a grocer,” McKevitt added.