The fight before Christmas - How was it for you?

The latest grocery share figures from Kantar Worldpanel, published today for the 12 weeks ending 25 December 2011, show the grocery market growing at 4.8% per year. This growth rate remains below the 5.9% food inflation rate, reflecting the intense and ongoing price competition between retailers.

Edward Garner, Director at Kantar Worldpanel explains: “We continue to see a price war as the big four battle for market share. Tesco’s Big Price Drop has had an aggressive response from its competitors and put pressure on its share, which has slipped from 30.5% a year ago to 30.1%. In contrast, Asda has seen a strong year-on-year performance with its share up from 16.8% to 17.2%. This is in part thanks to the conversion of Netto stores which it acquired earlier in the year.

“Sainsbury’s has also enjoyed a positive year-end performance with its Brand Price Match helping the retailer to grow its share to 16.7%. This is the highest share we have reported for Sainsbury’s since March 2003. Morrisons also achieved growth just ahead of the market and held share as a result.”

Elsewhere, the ‘Two Nations’ divide remains a prevalent feature of the grocery market with Iceland, Aldi, Lidl and Waitrose all performing strongly. The performance of the discounters was bolstered by some Netto shoppers turning to their stores.

Edward continues: “Behind these topline numbers, there is now strong evidence that households are shopping around more. Nearly all retailers can claim to have more shoppers, who are making more trips than last year. However, basket sizes are now smaller – a classic response to tight household budgets.”

Watch the previous commentary here