FDBusiness.com

The latest grocery share figures from Kantar Worldpanel, for the 12 weeks ending 8 December 2013, show that, for the first time, over half the country shopped in either Aldi or Lidl during the past 12 weeks. Some 50.1% of all British households stepped into a discount retailer compared with 46.1% a year ago.

Chris Longbottom, director at Kantar Worldpanel, comments: “Both Aldi and Lidl have continued to record double-digit growth and are successfully broadening their shopper base with half of all British households visiting one of them during the latest period. Aldi now boasts a record 4.0% of the grocery market having increased its share for nearly every 12-week period since the end of 2010. Lidl retains its record share of 3.1% which it reached during the summer.”

Value continues to be a powerful incentive for the British shopper, a fact that is further highlighted by Farmfoods which, while still a relatively small player in the market, has grown its sales by 36.6% compared with last year.

Chris Longbottom continues: “At the other end of the market Waitrose has performed strongly with 6.7% growth. Based on past patterns, it is likely to further boost its market share over the busy Christmas period, as is Iceland which traditionally performs well with its party food offering.”

Elsewhere, all of the big four grocers and the Co-operative have lost market share this period. Among this group, the best performer continues to be Sainsbury’s although the year-on-year growth of 1.8% was insufficient to match the market growth of 2.8%. Tesco accounted for 29.9% of sales in the latest period, Asda 16.9%, Sainsbury’s 16.8% and Morrisons 11.6%.

Grocery inflation stands at 3.0% for the 12 week period ending 8 December 2013. This is at the lowest level for a year and offers a small respite for hard-pressed household budgets.