WAITROSE CHRISTMAS WIPEOUT
As two-thirds of shoppers visit Aldi or Lidl . . .
SHOPPeRS shunned Waitrose in the crucial run-up to Christmas, fuelling fears the high-end grocer has lost its lustre.
Sales at Waitrose slid by 1.7pc in the 12 weeks to December 30, making it the biggest festive loser among grocers as customers snapped up bargains at aldi and Lidl instead.
The German discounters came out top for sales as two-thirds of households shopped at either aldi or Lidl over the 12 weeks, giving them a record combined market share of 12.8pc, according to data company Kantar Worldpanel.
aldi notched up a 10.4pc rise in sales, while Lidl racked up a 9.4pc increase.
Steve Dresser, an independent analyst, said: ‘Instead of it being aldi for the odd special buy and basics, then Big Four for the rest, it has now flipped.’
Like Waitrose, Sainsbury’s also suffered a disappointing Christmas and was the only other supermarket to post a fall in sales during the period, a 0.4pc drop.
The latest decline at Sainsbury’s will raise questions over whether its chief executive, Mike Coupe, has taken his eye off the ball amid an investigation into the supermarket’s £14bn merger with rival asda.
Coupe, 58, who drew shoppers’ ire when he was caught on camera singing show tune ‘We’re In The Money’ when the deal was announced, has been accused of being distracted as his firm continues to lag behind its Big Four rivals. Shares in Sainsbury’s nonetheless climbed 0.3pc, or 0.8p, to 266.5p in trading yesterday.
In contrast, asda came out top of the Big Four grocers to report a 0.7pc rise in sales, edging it ahead of Tesco which posted a 0.6pc increase. Tesco shares rose 2.7pc, or 5.6p, to 208.1p.
Dresser said: ‘asda had the fastest growth of any premium own label at Christmas.’
Mike Watkins, Nielsen’s UK head of retailer insight, put this down to changing shopping habits. He said: ‘It was a reasonable but not spectacular Christmas, indicative of how shoppers will now spread their Christmas spending across more retailers.’
In a trading update that covered a different period to the Kantar figures, Morrisons revealed a 0.6pc rise in sales for the nine weeks to January 6. Chief executive David Potts said customers are increasingly thrifty, pointing out that sales of the grocer’s ‘wonky veg’ range of cheaper, misshapen vegetables had doubled from a year earlier.
Morrisons sold 3m of its ‘three for £1’ bags of vegetables. although the figures were better than analysts expected, its shares fell 3.2pc, or 7.05p, to 212.6p.
Russ Mould, of investment firm aJ Bell, said: ‘The positive Christmas trading update from Morrisons is impressive when you consider it enjoyed such a bumper festive period last time around.’