Stores enjoy growth in challenging market

RETAILING: Tesco decline slows and Sainsbury’s maintains improvement

Tesco slowed its falling sales as supermarkets enjoyed their fastest growth in five months, despite the ongoing price war and falling grocery prices.

Tesco’s overall sales fell by 0.8%, halving last period’s decline of 1.6%, after a renewed focus on price promotions helped stem an exodus of shoppers.

The performance by the supermarket which closed 50 stores last year was in the face of the ongoing supermarket price war and falling grocery prices.

The figures for the 12 weeks to the end of February show a small increase in supermarket sales which are up by 0.5% on a year ago.

Sainsbury’s was again the only one of the big four to boost sales, seeing growth for the eighth consecutive quarter.

The increase was 0.5% but its overall market share was flat at 16.8%.

Morrisons’ cutting of stores since last year contributed to its sales falling by 3.2% and a dip in its market share to 10.6%.

Its online sales grew strongly, and the report predicts its forthcoming tie-up with Amazon could provide “another boost to the business”.

Sales in larger stores across the market fell by 2% as consumers spent less per average trip in these shops.

Asda was affected by the trend, with sales falling by 4% and market share dropping to 16.2%.

Waitrose saw its sales grow by 0.2%, maintaining its 5.2% share of the market for the third period in a row.

The cooperative increased its market share to 6% after an increase in shopper frequencycontributedtoasalesincrease of 1.9%.