Lidl, Aldi Lead Britain's Supermarkets for Market Share Gains

By Razak Musah Baba

LONDON--Lidl and Aldi are Britain's fastest growing supermarkets as the discount retailers continue to increase sales and market share, a survey showed Tuesday.

Lidl increased its market share to 5.1% in the 12 weeks ended July 16 from 4.5% in the comparable period a year earlier, while Aldi's market share rose to 7.0%, from 6.2%, Kantar Worldpanel said. Kantar monitors the household grocery purchasing habits of 25,000 demographically representative households in the U.K. .

For the U.K's top four supermarket chains, Tesco PLC's (TSCO.LN) market share fell to 27.8% in the 12 weeks, from 28.3% for the comparable period. However, sales in the 12 weeks were up 2.3% at 7.32 billion pounds ($9.42 billion).

J Sainsbury PLC's (SBRY.LN) market share fell to 16%, from 16.3%, while sales rose 2.2% to GBP4.21 billion.

Asda, a subsidiary of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), saw its market share fall to 15.1%, from 15.5%, with sales 1% higher at GBP3.96 billion. Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc's (MRW.LN) market share fell to 10.5%, from 10.7%, while sales rose 2.1% to GBP2.77 billion

Up-market retailer Waitrose maintained its market share at 5.2% in the 12 weeks ended July 16 increased sales 2.8% to GBP1.33 billion, Kantar reported.

Lidl's sales rose 19.4% to GBP1.35 billion in the 12 weeks, while Aldi's sales climbed 17.9% to GBP1.84 billion.

"Robust market growth this year has been boosted by higher grocery inflation, but consumers will be pleased to hear that price rises are no longer accelerating," said Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel. "Like-for-like inflation now stands at 3.2%, the same rate of increase as this time last month. One year on from the EU referendum--which had a marked impact on the price of imported groceries--hard-pressed shoppers could soon start to feel upward pricing pressures ease."

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 25, 2017 04:04 ET (08:04 GMT)

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