Morrisons set to lose Big Four spot to Aldi

As sales slump following private equity takeover...

MORRISONS is set to lose its spot as the UK’s fourth biggest supermarket as shoppers abandon it in favour of Aldi and lidl.

the Bradford-based grocer has been haemorrhaging customers to the German discounters since falling into private equity ownership last year and as the cost of living crisis bites.

While its Big Four rivals tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda have also felt the strain, sales at Morrisons are falling faster.

And industry figures show Aldi is a whisker away from knocking Morrisons out of the Big Four of Britain’s leading supermarkets.

It would be a huge blow and further fuel fears that private equity barons are bad stewards for major supermarkets, especially as the cost of living soars.

Morrisons has occupied the coveted fourth spot since taking over Safeway in 2004. In the latest Kantar grocery market figures for the three months to July 11, Morrisons sales fell 6.7pc, from £3bn to £2.8bn. It was a much sharper drop than Sainsbury’s and Asda, which saw sales fall by around 2pc. And tesco, the UK’s largest supermarket, saw sales rise by 0.1pc in the same period. lidl’s sales rocketed 13.9pc, while Aldi’s rose by 11.3pc, meaning the German discounters now take up a massive 16.1pc of the overall market. they have been boosted during the cost of living crisis by an influx of families looking for ways to cut the cost of a weekly shop.

Aldi alone takes up 9.1pc of the market, just 0.3 percentage points behind Morrisons, having narrowed the gap from 1.9 percentage points this time last year when Morrisons had a 10.1pc share and Aldi 8.2pc. Kantar head of retail and consumer insight Fraser McKevitt said more than 67pc of shoppers used a lidl or Aldi in the past three months. He added that the retailers attracted visits from 1.4m more households than the same time last year.

Shore Capital retail analyst Clive Black said Aldi is ‘right on the heels’ of Morrisons and it is being displaced from its topfour position.

New York-based CD&R bought Morrisons for £7bn in october. Asda was bought by the billionaire Issa brothers and london-based private equity house TDR Capital for £6.8bn in 2020.

Morrisons and Asda have been accused of pushing up prices faster than rivals as inflation soars.