Discount Retailer Aldi Overtakes Co-op to Become UK's Fifth-Largest Supermarket

By Razak Musah Baba

LONDON--Aldi is now Britain's fifth-largest supermarket, after increasing its market share by 0.6 percentage points and growing sales by more than 12% over the 12 weeks ending Jan. 29, according to a survey published Tuesday.

The German discount grocer, which now has a 6.2% market share, overtook the Co-op, despite the latter increasing its market share during the period to 6% from 5.9% a year earlier, Kantar Worldpanel said. Kantar monitors the grocery-purchasing habits of 25,000 demographically representative households in the U.K.

The number one grocer by market share is Tesco PLC (TSCO.LN), which continued growing for the fifth period in a row but at a slower rate than previously. Tesco's sales were up 0.3% during the 12 weeks ending Jan. 29, but the retailer's market share fell to 28.1% from 28.5% over the period.

Kantar said Sainsbury's sales were flat, while its market share fell by 0.3 percentage points to stand at 16.5%. Asda, a unit of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), had a 1.9% decline in sales and a 0.6 percentage points drop in market share to 15.6%.

According to the survey, Morrisons was the fastest-growing retailer within the big four, increasing its market share for the first time since June 2015 with a sales uplift of 1.9% year-over-year. Morrisons market share rose to 10.9% during the 12 weeks ending Jan. 29 from 10.8% a year earlier

Up-market retailer Waitrose's market share rose to 5.3% from 5.2%. Discount retailer Lidl's market share rose to 4.5% from 4.2%.

-Write to Razak Musah Baba at [e-mail]; Twitter: @Raztweet

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 07, 2017 04:18 ET (09:18 GMT)

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