The grocery market has bucked the rumoured trend of a poor pre-Christmas trading period, showing healthy growth in the last quarter.
According to the latest TNS Worldpanel grocery market share figures, published for the 12 weeks ending December 3, the grocery market has again performed well, posting a market growth rate of five per cent.
Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons all post strong growth rates ahead of the overall market and, taken together, the top four now account for over three-quarters of British grocery trading.
Of the mainstream grocery retailers, Waitrose is demonstrating the strongest growth at 11 per cent year-on-year. According to TNS, this is likely to lead into a record Christmas for the supermarket, as shoppers adopt more upmarket buying patterns in the run-up to the big day.
At the same time however, discount retailers, such as Aldi, Lidl, Netto, have achieved a record total share of 5.5 per cent, helped by recent new openings and acquisitions.
TNS director of research Edward Garner said: “This environment, where every point of market share is being fought over, is proving tough for the independent sector and Kwik Save in particular.”
