Sainsbury’s has led the charge in a strong Christmas performance for most of the grocery retailers.
According to figures from Kantar Worldpanel for the 12 weeks to 26 December 2010, Sainsbury’s sales climbed seven per cent year on year to £4.2 billion and its market share increased by 0.3 percentage points to 16.6 per cent.
Tesco’s share held steady at 30.5, the same as in 2009, while its sales climbed five per cent to £7.6bn, just below the market increase of 5.1 per cent.
Yorkshire retailers Morrisons and Asda both saw their share of the market fall by 0.1 points and were behind market growth in sales at four per cent and 4.6 per cent respectively.
Waitrose was the second-best performer with an increase in market share year on year of 0.2 points and sales up a market-beating 9.4 per cent.
Ed Garner, communications director at Kantar Worldpanel, said: “Certainly over Christmas the winners have been Sainsbury’s and Waitrose. For Christmas 2008 the whole message was cheap and cheerful, but in 2009 and 2010 common sense and balance have come back into the equation and within reason, people have traded up a bit.
“Waitrose and Sainsbury’s have benefited from this. Sainsbury’s has done well because of its value with values message which it has really taken to the mass market.”
Other highlights were an 11 per cent rise in premium own-label sales at the big four supermarkets and growth ahead of the market at 6.6 and 8.9 per cent respectively for discounters Aldi and Lidl.
