Wal-Mart-owned Asda is continuing to be hardest hit by major disruption in the supermarket sector, caused by the rise of discounters Aldi and Lidl, as it recorded its worst ever sales quarterly sales decline of 4.7 per cent over the three months to June.
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Fraser McKevitt, of Kantar Worldpanel, said: “In contrast to the overall market, online grocery sales have increased by 9.8 per cent on past year”. (WMT), saw its market share fall to 16.6%, from 17.3% for the comparable 12 weeks, with sales 3% lower at GBP4.08 billion. This month, Tesco began a price-matching program that offers immediate discounts, rather than money-off vouchers, while Asda announced Monday that it will redirect planned non-grocery investment back into its supermarkets.
Sales at Tesco were down 1.7%, with the retailer holding 28.1% of the market.
Sainsbury’s was the only one of the larger supermarkets to see sales growth this period, and a strong performance in its online and Local stores helped it to increase revenues by 1.1 per cent, though market share was static at 16.1 per cent. Sales fell at Tesco by 1.7 per cent, though it is too early to see the impact of its revamped “Brand Guarantee” initiative, Kantar said. Sainsbury surprised investors in September by forecasting that full-year pretax profit will surpass analysts’ estimates.
The sales slide “cements Asda’s position as the worst performer of the UK’s big four grocers”, The Guardian notes, pointing to a fall in market share in the last monthly industry-wide sales update when it lost second place to Sainsbury’s.
Amazon could become another thorn in the side of Britain’s big four supermarkets if the launch of its grocery delivery service goes ahead as expected next year, according to consultancy Kantar Worldpanel.
McKevitt said all grocers could benefit from doing more to push online sales, because the convenience factor and minimum spend restrictions mean online shopping baskets tend to be larger at £67 on average, versus £14 in store. Asda sales were down 3%, while sales at Morrisons fell by 1%, taking share to 10.8%.
The latest Kantar Worldpanel data also shows that Aldi saw its revenues rocket by 17.6 per cent compared to last year’s figures.
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At the other end of the spectrum, there has been further success this period for up-market Waitrose, where sales have climbed by 2.1%.
