“Frozen confectionary sales grew by 23 per cent in the last month, while chilled drinks increased by 10 per cent”.
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Promotional sales dropped to their lowest level since September 2010 as the major retailers continued to move towards simpler pricing models.
“Shoppers are clearly responding to the better value offered through own label rather than money off, with own brand goods growing at both ends of the price spectrum: premium retailer brands are up by nine per cent and value lines up by two per cent”. The discounters now have a combined market share of 11%.
Shoppers have heeded Co-op’s call to shop little and often with this growth primarily coming from an increased number of trips to the retailer.
Mike Watkins, Nielsen’s United Kingdom head of retailer and business insight, said: “Brexit seems to have been replaced by an Olympic “feel-good” factor among shoppers and there were more visits to buy food and drink in the last four weeks than this time a year ago”. Grocery prices decreased; a representative basket cost 1.3 per cent less than it did a year ago.
As of 09:20 BST, Tesco’s share price had added 3.27 percent to 164.71p, outperforming the benchmark FTSE 100 index which is now 0.68 percent better off at 6,874.76 points.
Aldi and Lidl’s joint market share rose to 10.7% in the 12 weeks ended August 14, up from 9.7% in the comparable 12 weeks ended August 16, 2015.
Sainsbury PLC (SBRY.LN)’s market share in the 12 weeks ended August 14 declined to 16.1%, from 16.3%, while sales fell 0.6% to GBP4.04 billion. And it is tipped to return to sales growth by the end of the year.
McKevitt adds: “Tesco’s recent product launches have been making a positive impact on its performance, with its “Farm brands” funding their way into over a quarter of the Tesco baskets from this period”.
As expected, Asda remained the sector laggard with sales down 5.5 percent.
Up-market retailer Waitrose’s market share was unchanged at 5.1%, and sales climbed 1.4% to GBP1.28 billion.
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Sales at Tesco’s closest challenger, Sainsbury’s, dipped by 0.6 percent, while store closures contributed to a 1.8 percent decline at No. 4 player Morrisons.
