By Ed Ballard
LONDON--The British grocery market grew by 1.9% on the year in
the 12 weeks to April 27, the slowest rate for 11 years as price
competition intensified, according to data published Wednesday by
Kantar Worldpanel.
Tesco PLC (TSCO.LN), J Sainsbury PLC (SBRY.LN), and Wm Morrison
Supermarkets PLC (MRW.LN) all lost market share, Kantar said. Of
the "big four" supermarkets, Asda Stores Ltd. fared best,
maintaining its 17.3% market share and recording growth of 2% on
the year.
German discount supermarkets Aldi and Lidl achieved record
market shares of 4.7% and 3.5%, respectively, as did upmarket
competitor Waitrose with 5.1%.
"The proportion of sales on promotion stands at 45% among the
big four. By contrast, the figure at Aldi is just 3%," said Kantar
director Edward Garner.
Write to Ed Ballard at ed.ballard@wsj.com
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