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Kantar Worldpanel Asda Aldi

'Drastic Dave’s' overhaul paying off as Tesco returns to growth for the first time in 12 months

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By Jennifer Faull, Deputy Editor

February 10, 2015 | 3 min read

Tesco has returned to growth for the first time since January 2014, increasing sales by 0.3 per cent year-on-year, according to the latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel.

For the 12 weeks ending 1 February Tesco drew an additional 236,000 shoppers through its doors, a welcome sign for chief executive Dave Lewis – dubbed ‘Drastic Dave’ – who has been on a mission to turn the fortunes of the ailing supermarket around.

In the past three months, Lewis has offloaded a number of assets including Blinkbox for a reported £25m, and 43 unprofitable stores, to reinvest in price cuts. Pre-Christmas, Lewis brought in a new marketing chief, Robin Terrell, as part of an aggressive board level shake-up and in the New Year a brand campaign was launched to promote low-prices on ‘everyday branded products’.

While the flurry of activity has boosted sales, Tesco’s overall market share continued to fall, down a further 0.2 per cent to 29 per cent year-on-year.

Meanwhile, Asda overtook Sainsbury’s to reclaim the title of second largest retailer with a 16.9 per cent share of the market. However, sales fell 1.7 per cent at the supermarket.

Sainsbury’s controvertial Christmas campaign similarly failed to convert to sales for the period, dropping by 1.0 per cent, while Morrisons’ saw a 0.4 per cent fall.

It was a different story for discount rivals Aldi and Lidl. Aldi saw a sales growth of 21.2 per cent while Lidl achieved a 14.2 per cent increase.

However, Fraser McKevitt, head of retail insight at Kantar, said the two will find their accelerated growth levels hard to match in the coming year.

“Aldi's growth is still impressive but it's a relative slowing from its 36 per cent peak in April 2014. Likewise, Lidl’s maximum growth of 24 per cent last May is now down,” he explained.

Despite this slowdown, both retailers are still taking share from the other retailers – rising 0.8 per cent and 0.4 per cent respectively to 4.9 per cent and 3.5 per cent.

At the premium end of the market Waitrose had focused on price and promotion over the past 12 weeks, resulting in a sales rise of 7.2 per cent to take its market share to 5.2 per cent.

Overall, Kantar Worldpanel found the grocery market has grown at 1.1 per cent, the fastest rate since June 2014. Like-for-like, grocery prices fell by 1.2 per cent, a record low, and equates to £327m saved by British shoppers.

Kantar Worldpanel Asda Aldi

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