Big Four grocers lose out to Aldi and Lidl
Share of market hits 15-year low
THE market share of the Big Four supermarkets has tumbled to a 15-year low as the march of the German discounters Aldi and Lidl continues.
Tesco, Sainbury’s, Asda and Morrisons now hold just 62.7pc of the market.
The last time it was that low was in November 2014 – piling pressure on the Big Four ahead of the crucial Christmas trading period.
Aldi and Lidl have raked in an additional £1bn in sales over the past year, boosting their combined market share to 14.1pc, data company Kantar said.
Aldi, which has an 8.1pc share, is now rapidly catching up with Morrison’s, which has slumped to under a tenth of the UK market.
The discounter has been luring middle- class customers by selling high-end products such as yellowfin sole and Aberdeen Angus steaks under the banner ‘Luxury you can afford’. Last month it announced it hoped to grow from 775 to 1,200 stores by 2025. Sainsbury’s, the second-largest supermarket with 1,400 stores, performed better than its Big Four rivals, giving some relief to chief executive Mike Coupe after the failed merger with Asda. It increased its sales at the fastest rate since October 2018, although its share still fell compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, sales at Tesco, Asda and Morrisons were down by 0.2pc, 0.9pc and 1.8pc respectively, Kantar data showed. Tesco was last week rocked by the news its chief executive Dave Lewis ( pictured) will step down next year. He was credited with turning the giant round from a loss of £6.4bn and steering it through a £150m accounting scandal. But in the last year, the grocer has seen its market share fall from 28.1pc to 27pc, although profits are predicted to grow in the coming years.
Lewis laid out his plan to grow Tesco online, by building its own stock warehouses on the back of existing stores, and boosting income from abroad by building 750 stores in Thailand.
The food market as a whole has grown by 1.2pc in the past quarter, and Ocado remains the fastest-growing grocer. Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said: ‘The grocery market seems to have finally edged out from under the shadow of 2018 and tough comparisons with the strong summer sales of last year.’ He added: ‘ Well- documented concerns about the availability of popular products in the event of a No Deal Brexit have not yet translated into a consistent increase in purchasing. While a quarter of British consumers say they are considering stockpiling, it seems they are waiting to see how the next few weeks play out.’ The proportion of sales on promotion increased for the first time in nearly four-and-a-half years to 32.3pc, driven by Tesco’s ‘100 years of value’ campaign and Sainsbury’s ‘Price lockdown’. Mike Watkins, Nielsen’s UK head of retailer and business insight, said: ‘Retailers will need to invest more heavily in promotional and advertising activity if they want to have the best chance of success in the run-up to Christmas.’