UK Grocers Sales Increase Thanks to Warm Weather

By Maryam Cockar

Sales among U.K. grocers grew in the 12 weeks ending Sept. 9 as consumers splashed out on alcohol, soft drinks and ice-cream during the warm summer, a survey by Kantar Worldpanel showed Tuesday.

The warm summer, that spanned the football world cup and the August bank holiday, was kind to supermarkets' convenience-store format as consumers shopped locally, with the Co-op and Tesco Express the main beneficiaries, said Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel.

Sales at Tesco PLC (TSCO.LN), the U.K.'s No. 1 grocer by market share, rose 1.9% and its market share declined by 0.5 percentage points to 27.4%.

At rival J Sainsbury PLC (SBRY.LN), Kanta said sales rose at their fastest rate since December, up 1.6%, while its share of the market fell by 0.4 percentage points to 15.4%.

German retailer Aldi was the U.K.'s fastest growing supermarket as sales rose 13.9% and Kantar said that nearly half of this growth came from the fresh and chilled aisles. Its discount rival Lidl also outpaced the market with sales up 8.3%. Aldi's market share increased 0.6 percentage points to 7.6%, while Lidl's market share grew 0.2 percentage points to 5.5%.

Meanwhile, Kanta said that the recovery at Asda Group Ltd. (AGP.YY), a subsidiary of U.S. retail giant Walmart Inc. (WMT), continued with sales up 3.1%. Asda's market share fell by 0.1 percentage points to 15.3%.

Wm. Morrison Supermarkets PLC's (MRW.LN) market share slipped by 0.1 percentage point to 10.2%, with sales increasing 3%.

Online supermarket Ocado Group PLC's (OCDO.LN) market share rose by 0.1 percentage point to 1.2% as sales grew 7.9%.

The market share of up-market retailer Waitrose, a division of John Lewis Partnership PLC (LEJ.YY), fell by 0.2 percentage points to 5.1%, while sales rose 0.8%, Kantar said.

Write to Maryam Cockar at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 18, 2018 03:57 ET (07:57 GMT)

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