Sainsbury overtaken by Asda in fresh blow

SAINSBURY’S has lost its status as the UK’s second largest supermarket to Asda.

In a fresh setback for chief executive Mike Coupe, sales fell 1.8pc over the 12 weeks to March 24 as it scrambled to get a £14bn merger with Walmart-owned Asda backed by the competition regulator.

Coupe, 58, is now fighting for his job. Latest Kantar supermarket data show sales at Asda edged up by 0.1pc in the last 12 weeks, giving it a 15.4pc share of the market.

That was just above Sainsbury’s, which has fallen from 15.8pc a year ago to 15.3pc. Analysts at Jefferies said Asda ‘seems to be holding up much better’ to uncertainty over the planned merger.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: ‘The pressure is still on. Coupe would argue that [this] is one of the rationales for the deal, that it needs to fight fire with fire, get bargaining power and drive costs lower, and provide value to customers and fight back.’

Sainsbury’s has been desperately trying to win over the Competition and Markets Authority, which has threatened to block the merger with Asda unless it agrees to sell hundreds of stores.

German discounters Aldi and Lidl continued to enjoy the largest sales growth over the 12 weeks, up by 10.6pc and 5.8pc. Online supermarket Ocado was just behind, posting a 5.5pc increase. Sales at convenience store chain Co- op were up 3.9pc and by 1.3pc at Waitrose.