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Morrisons only one of ‘big four’ retailers to achieve sales growth

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By Jennifer Faull, Deputy Editor

June 2, 2015 | 3 min read

Morrisons has emerged as the standout retailer in the latest grocery share figures from Kantar Worldpanel, achieving a modest sales growth where its big four rivals – Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s – failed to notch up positive figures. It marks the first time the retailer has grown sales since December 2013.

Published today for the 12 weeks ending 24 May 2015, the report shows Morrisons mustered a 0.1 per cent boost to sales, although its share of the grocery sector remained unchanged at 10.9 per cent.

Meanwhile, Sainsbury’s saw sales continue to fall by 0.3 per cent. And despite an improved start to the year Tesco sales dropped by 1.3 per cent, with its market share falling by 0.4 percentage points to 28.6 per cent. Similarly, Asda sales were down by 2.4 per cent.

It came amid slow growth overall in the supermarket sector with sales increasing by just 0.2 per cent compared to a year ago.

Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel, said the results will be a welcome boost for new chief executive David Potts.

“A committed core of loyal Morrisons consumers is responding positively to recent initiatives and business has been boosted by online sales. Morrisons’ performance is an improvement on what was a difficult May 2014, so this is only the first step in any future recovery,” he continued.

Potts replaced Dalton Philips earlier this year following dismal Christmas sales. Among his first changes, he committed to reintroducing 1,000 manned tills to stores and ignited a sponsorship of the Great North Run to strengthen its association with healthy living and fresh food. He vows that improved customer experience in-store will continue to be an area of focus for the coming year having recently announced that up to 720 head office jobs will be cut to supplement the hiring of 5,000 in-store staff.

The Big Four continue to battle against the likes of Lidl and Aldi, both of which continue to see strong sales and growth in marketshare.

Lidl reached a new record high market share of 3.9 per cent thanks to an 8.8 per cent boost to sales while Aldi also grew sales by 15.7 per cent to take 5.4 per cent of the market. Fellow discounter Iceland also returned to growth for the first time in a year during this period, increasing sales by 1.9 per cent.

Finally, as a result of sales growth of 1.6 per cent, Waitrose has increased market share to 5.2 per cent thanks in part to a regional bias towards southern Britain, where grocery sales are growing more quickly, particularly in London.

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