Sales at Asda, Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsbury’s all drop for the first time in a year
The supermarket sector has suffered yet another setback, with sales at all of the Big Four declining in the last quarter, while – you guessed it – Aldi and Lidl posted double-digit growth.
Asda was the poorest performer of the biggest supermarkets, with sales dropping 5.1 per cent according to Kantar Worldpanel, followed by Morrisons, which dropped 2.6 per cent.
Sales at Tesco were down 1.3 per cent, while Sainsbury's maintained its position as the best performer of the group, with sales down a relatively small 0.4 per cent.
"This marks the first time that each of the Big Four has simultaneously witnessed a drop in sales since April 2015," said Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel.
Tesco's share price was down one per cent in early trading, while Morrisons fell 2.2 per cent.
Sainbury's, which released its full year figures this morning, was down 1.8 per cent.
Lidl recorded the biggest growth, with sales surging 15.4 per cent, while Aldi followed with a 12.5 per cent growth.
The Co-operative managed to maintain its position as the UK's fifth biggest supermarket, however, with sales up 3.3 per cent. Waitrose grew sales 1.5 per cent while Iceland fell 2.2 per cent.
Across the sector, sales increased by only 0.1 per cent on this time last year – a slowdown from the 1.1 per cent reported in April, which was boosted by an early Easter.
McKevitt added: “Individual households have stopped increasing the amount of groceries they buy and while it is tempting to correlate lower volumes with the uncertainty surrounding the EU referendum there is no evidence that supermarket purchasing has any significant link with consumer confidence.”