UK Grocers Sales Increase Thanks to Warm Weather
18 September 2018 - 6:12PM
Dow Jones News
By Maryam Cockar
Sales among U.K. grocers grew in the 12 weeks ending Sept. 9 as
consumers splashed out on alcohol, soft drinks and ice-cream during
the warm summer, a survey by Kantar Worldpanel showed Tuesday.
The warm summer, that spanned the football world cup and the
August bank holiday, was kind to supermarkets' convenience-store
format as consumers shopped locally, with the Co-op and Tesco
Express the main beneficiaries, said Fraser McKevitt, head of
retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel.
Sales at Tesco PLC (TSCO.LN), the U.K.'s No. 1 grocer by market
share, rose 1.9% and its market share declined by 0.5 percentage
points to 27.4%.
At rival J Sainsbury PLC (SBRY.LN), Kanta said sales rose at
their fastest rate since December, up 1.6%, while its share of the
market fell by 0.4 percentage points to 15.4%.
German retailer Aldi was the U.K.'s fastest growing supermarket
as sales rose 13.9% and Kantar said that nearly half of this growth
came from the fresh and chilled aisles. Its discount rival Lidl
also outpaced the market with sales up 8.3%. Aldi's market share
increased 0.6 percentage points to 7.6%, while Lidl's market share
grew 0.2 percentage points to 5.5%.
Meanwhile, Kanta said that the recovery at Asda Group Ltd.
(AGP.YY), a subsidiary of U.S. retail giant Walmart Inc. (WMT),
continued with sales up 3.1%. Asda's market share fell by 0.1
percentage points to 15.3%.
Wm. Morrison Supermarkets PLC's (MRW.LN) market share slipped by
0.1 percentage point to 10.2%, with sales increasing 3%.
Online supermarket Ocado Group PLC's (OCDO.LN) market share rose
by 0.1 percentage point to 1.2% as sales grew 7.9%.
The market share of up-market retailer Waitrose, a division of
John Lewis Partnership PLC (LEJ.YY), fell by 0.2 percentage points
to 5.1%, while sales rose 0.8%, Kantar said.
Write to Maryam Cockar at maryam.cockar@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 18, 2018 03:57 ET (07:57 GMT)
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