Waitrose growth continues to soar as the big four lose out, latest Kantar Worldpanel figures reveal.
The grocery share data published this week for the 12 weeks ending 15 April, show the market growing at five per cent. This is the highest level of growth since January 2010 but is mainly fuelled by food price inflation rather than real volume increases.
Edward Garner, director at Kantar Worldpanel said: “The discounters and Waitrose are outperforming the middle ground as shoppers polarise their spend. To this effect, Aldi and Lidl continue their strong run and both achieve record shares this period. Iceland’s growth rate of 9.1 per cent is also racing ahead of the market - further proof that consumers are convinced by strong value-for-money messages.”
The fact that Waitrose is showing no slowdown in its growth suggests there are some households that are not allowing economic pressures to affect their food purchasing. Garner believe this may also be a result of cutbacks on eating out which have meant that some shoppers are willing to spend more money on bringing the dining out experience into the home. He said: “The continued growth of premium own-labels, particularly Tesco Finest and Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference, is further evidence of this behaviour.”
Among the big four, Asda has the strongest growth, which includes the benefit of its Netto conversions. It is followed by Sainsbury’s with growth just ahead of the market at 5.4 per cent. Both Tesco and Morrisons lag behind the market and their shares drop by 0.2 points compared with last year. However, in the case of Tesco, this is less than the declines seen earlier this year.
