Aldi, Lidl Continue to Take UK Market Share From 'Big Four' -Surveys

By Adria Calatayud

German retailers Aldi and Lidl continue to take market share from the top four U.K. grocers, two surveys show Tuesday, taking them to record highs.

Aldi's market share has risen to 6.9% in the 12 weeks ended Sept. 10, compared with 6.2% a year earlier, while Lidl's share rose to 5.3%, from 4.6% in the 12 weeks ended Sept. 11, 2016, Kantar Worldpanel said. Kantar monitors the household grocery purchasing habits of 25,000 demographically representative households in the U.K.

"Collectively Aldi and Lidl now account for nearly one pound in every GBP8 spent in Britain's supermarkets--a decade ago this was only GBP1 in GBP25. In the past three months almost 63% of shoppers visited one of the two retailers, up from a level of 58.5% last year," said Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel.

Separately, a survey by Nielsen Homescan shows that Aldi's market share has risen to 8.1% in the 12 weeks ended Sept. 9, from 7.4% in the comparable period ended Sept. 10, 2016, while Lidl's has risen to 5.2%, from 4.5%. Nielsen measures buying habits through its 15,000-household geo-demographically balanced panel. Aldi's sales rose 14% in the 12 weeks, while Lidl's rose 19%.

At the top end of the scale, Tesco's market share has fallen to 27.8% in the latest 12 weeks, from 28.1% a year earlier, despite experiencing sales growth of 2.7%, Kantar data shows. Sales in the 12 weeks were GBP7.15 billion.

Sainsbury PLC's (SBRY.LN) market share in the 12 weeks ended Sept. 10 fell to 15.7%, from 15.9%, while sales have increased 2.1% to GBP4.04 billion, Kantar reports.

Asda, a subsidiary of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), saw its market share decline to 15.4%, from 15.7% for the comparable 12 weeks, with sales 1.5% higher at GBP3.96 billion. Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC's (MRW.LN) market share fell to 10.3%, from 10.4%, while sales increased by 2.3% to GBP2.64 billion

The market share of up-market retailer Waitrose, a division of John Lewis PLC, was unchanged at 5.3% in the 12 weeks ended Sept. 10, while sales climbed 2.4% to GBP1.35 billion, Kantar reports.

Aldi's sales in the 12 weeks have grown 15.6% to GBP1.78 billion, while Lidl's sales have risen 19.2% to GBP1.35 billion.

According to Nielsen, Tesco's market share has dropped to 27.5% in the 12 weeks ended Sept. 9, from 27.7% for the comparable period ended Sept. 10, 2016. Sainsbury's fell to 14.9%, from 15.2%, Asda fell to 13.8%, from 14.1% and Morrison fell to 9.9% from 10%, the Nielsen data shows.

Write to Adria Calatayud at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 19, 2017 04:17 ET (08:17 GMT)

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