Sainsbury’s is only supermarket to gain share this month

Sainsbury’s has continued to outperform its rivals, according to the latest grocery market figures from Kantar Worldpanel.

Sainsbury’s reported 5.6% growth for the 12 weeks ending 3 October, ahead of the 4.1% market growth.

It also increased its market share by 0.2%, the only one of the top four supermarkets to gain share during the period.

Asda’s share dropped 0.1% during the period, however this marks an improvement on previous months boosted by the relaunch of its own brand range, Chosen by You.

Morrisons growth rate slowed during the three-month period and Tesco’s share remains largely unchanged at 30.9%.

Waitrose recorded another strong performance with growth well over twice the market average and an increase in share from 4.0% to 4.2%.

The Co-Operative now holds 6.7% market share following the completion of the merger with Somerfield and the discounters including Aldo, Netto and Lidl delivering “lack-lustre performance”.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) revealed today (12 October) that “consistently weak consumer confidence” is keeping sales down.

The BRC reported that total sales were up 2.2% compared with September last year and like for like sales only improved 0.5%

Nielsen figures also out today reveal record levels of promotional activity in supermarkets with 37% of grocery sales on offer.

However, promotional activity is not encouraging consumers to buy more.

Mike Watkins, senior manager retailer services at Nielsen, says: “All major supermarkets are increasing the level of in store promotions – double loyalty points and money off voucher schemes are no longer the differentiators that they were 12 months ago.

“This coupled with the fact that Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and M&S are now all in good solid growth indicates that we could well see food retailers focussing on range and quality in addition to value for money in the run up to Christmas 2010.”

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