Asda is under pressure as its market share falls for the fifth month in a row while Waitrose and Aldi at opposite ends of the retail spectrum maintain high growth.
The latest grocery market figures from Kantar Worldpanel, published for the 12 weeks ending, show low inflation continues to bite.
Total market growth by the supermarkets has remained at 3.3 per cent this month. Tesco has held steady at 30.6 per cent and matching overall market growth while Sainsbury’s and Morrisons are faring better both growing their market share in May and posting growth ahead of the market at 4.4 per cent and 6 per cent respectively.
Meanwhile, Asda is finding the going tough as its growth fell behind the market rate at just 2.5 per cent and Waitrose has maintained high growth at 12.5 per cent and Aldi is continuing to woo shoppers back with a strong produce offer boosted by its television advertising campaign featuring celebrity chef Phil Vickery. The result is a rise in market share to 3.1 per cent.
Ed Garner, communications director at Kantar Worldpanel, told freshinfo: “Phil Vickery is a point of difference Aldi has over the other discounters, but both Aldi and Lidl are quite strong on produce. There are other factors in there too for Aldi and it has consolidated its stores with 60-70 openings in the past year. We are seeing shoppers return to Aldi.”
As for Asda’s performance, Garner indicates new ceo Andy Clarke will have to turn the store’s fortunes around. He said: “We expect him to focus on restoring the clarity of Every Day Low Prices as well as reviewing the implementation of range rationalisation. Asda has already named these areas as a key priority going forward as shown by the launch of the Asda Price Guarantee and it will be interesting to see the results of the new strategy in the coming months.”
