The latest Kantar Worldpanel grocery share figures, for the 12 weeks ending 17 April 2011, show the best-ever performances for discounters Aldi and Lidl.
The German-owned chains lead market growth this period, with year-on-year sales increases of 15 per cent and 14.7 per cent respectively. Both retailers also achieved all-time record market shares of 3.3 per cent for Aldi and 2.6 per cent for Lidl.
Edward Garner, communications director at Kantar Worldpanel, said: “While the discounters are performing well this trend is not a re-run of 2008 when new shoppers turned to these outlets in response to the recession and nine per cent food-price inflation. Currently, discounter growth is fuelled by existing shoppers sharply increasing their spending levels.
“While in comparison to other major outlets, basket sizes at Aldi and Lidl remain relatively small, there is no doubt that these two retailers are now taking a larger portion of shoppers’ spending.”
After the discounters, the next highest grocery growth was posted by Waitrose at 7.7 per cent - providing further evidence that not everyone is responding to economic pressures in the same way.
Major share growth remains elusive for the top four retailers this period with only Morrisons out-performing the market to lift share from 11.8 per cent 12 months ago to 11.9 per cent.
Garner added: “Last period, the grocery growth rate plunged from 3.9 per cent to 2.6 per cent, suggesting that shoppers’ purses had snapped shut. This period, growth has recovered somewhat to 3.6 per cent. Part of the reason for this is the late timing of Easter in 2011. Seasonal products such as flowers, hot-cross buns, lamb and, of course, Easter eggs all showed sharp decreases over the same period last year when Easter was much earlier. However, this year there may well be a degree of catch-up taking place as Easter markets peak later.”
Grocery inflation stands at 4.3 per cent for the 12-week ending 17 April. This is the fifth successive increase and remains ahead of grocery market growth. “However, it remains our view that grocery inflation will not exceed five per cent this year and will start to fall back during the summer,” said Garner.
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