Lidl retains title of fastest growing UK supermarket

● Discount chain has 5.3% share of grocery market ● Year-on-year growth of 19.2% leads the sector

German discounter Lidl is once again the UK’S fastest growing supermarket chain with a record market share of 5.3 per cent, latest industry figures show.

Almost two thirds of shoppers visited a Lidl or its rival Aldi in the past three months, with the two retailers now accounting for almost £1 in every £8 spent in Britain’s supermarkets, up from £1 in £25 a decade ago, Kantar Worldpanel said.

Supermarket takings overall were up 3.6 per cent over the 12 weeks to 10 September compared with the same time last year, the sixth consecutive period of growth of more than 3 per cent, largely driven by grocery inflation.

However, poor weather in August hit sales of traditional summer items, with prepared salads seeing a 6 per cent dip and sun care down 16 per cent, year-on-year.

Fraser Mckevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel, said: “We haven’t seen sustained market growth of this kind since May 2013.

“A 1.5 per cent increase in the volume of goods going through the tills has contributed to this growth while the remainder of the overall sales increase is down to higher prices.

“Like-for-like grocery inflation now stands at 3.2 per cent, slightly ahead of the headline CPI rate and down 0.1 percentage points on last month.

“The average British household spends almost £4,200 in the grocers each year so a fall in inflation, which we expect to see as we approach the end of the year, will be a welcome relief.”

Lidl was the fastest growing operator with a year-on-year sales increase of 19.2 per cent, while Aldi’s growth of 15.6 per cent took its market share to 6.9 per cent.

Tesco’s recovery continued with sales up 2.7 per cent, although its market share was squeezed by 0.3 percentage points to 27.8 per cent, while Sainsbury’s market share fell 0.2 percentage points to 15.7 per cent.

Asda attracted an extra 482,000 shoppers compared with a year ago, the fastest rate by the retailer in more than three years.

Despite announcing a fall in profits last week, Waitrose’s sales increased by 2.4 per cent and it held on to a 5.3 per cent share of the market, currently level with Lidl.

Figures from Nielsen suggest that the rising cost of household groceries means shoppers are increasingly turning to supermarket own-label products. Spending on ownlabel items is up 5.5 per cent. Online grocer Ocado has cheered another strong quarter as it reported a pick-up in sales growth, but signalled a further hit from expansion plans. The firm posted a 13.1 per cent rise in retail revenues to £312.7 million for its quarter to 27 August, up from 12.5 per cent in the first half. Including earnings from its tie-up with Morrisons, group revenues lifted by 14.3 per cent to £344.5m. But the group signalled a knock to profits from setting up new distribution centres.