Tesco grew its market share in the last three months for the first time in five years, according to one batch of data released on Tuesday, while a rival survey found the best year-on-year sales figures for over three years.
According to Kantar Worldpanel, which revealed price deflation in the UK grocery sector eased off to 0.8%, Tesco grew sales by 1.3% and market share by 0.1 percentage points to 28.2%, its first market share growth in five years.
Meanwhile, Sainsbury’s sales fell by 0.4% but its market share also grew by a percentage point to 16%.
Morrisons sales were down 3.0% due to the effect of the sale of its convenience stores late last year but its market share remained at 10.4%.
Asda’s sales dropped 5.2% – the slowest rate of decline for four months for the Walmart subsidiary – despite a premium own label sales increase of 8%. Its market share declined by one percentage point to 15.6%.
Nielsens’s take
Data from Nielsen released at the same time on Tuesday showed money taken at the tills and volume of goods sold both rose 0.1% in the four weeks ending 8 October versus the same period a year ago – the third consecutive month of growth for both measures.
According to Nielsen’s data, Tesco enjoyed its best year-on-year sales figures for over three years, with a 1.4% increase in money taken at the tills in the 12 weeks ending 8 October versus the same period last year.
The last time the increase was higher was in the period ending in September 2013, and only the fourth period out of 39 since then that the FTSE 100 grocer has had a year-on-year increase in total sales.
“Tesco was the only one of the ‘Big Four’ to see a year-on-year increase and has started to attract new shoppers again, with two thirds of households visiting them in the last four weeks,” says Nielsen UK head of retailer and business insight, Mike Watkins.
“They are well placed to benefit from the ‘little-and-often’ mode of shopping behaviour which we see as a key driver of future growth across the entire industry.”
Nielsen has Sainsbury’s sales down 0.6%, Asda down 5.1% and Morrison down 3.2%.
