Morrisons gains and Tesco loses as UK supermarket sales slow, Kantar says

Sales at all four of the big four UK supermarkets fell in recent weeks as grocery growth slowed markedly post-Easter, according to data from Kantar Worldpanel.

Although Sainsbury’s was stronger than its rivals, sales fell for the first time since last July, losing 0.4% in the 12 weeks to 24 April.

Sainsbury's held onto its 16.5% market share, though Tesco slipped to 28.0% from 28.1% a month ago as its sales slumped by a sharp 1.3%.

Morrisons was the only one of the big four to gain market share, adding two percentage points to 10.6%.

Morrisons gained market despite seeing sales slide 2.6%, which is more to do with the sale of its convenience store estate.

Asda lost more ground on second place in the market, falling two percentage points to 16.0% as the Wal-Mart subsidiary suffered a 5.1% decline in sales.

Kantar Worldpanel pointed out that it was good news for consumers, with falling prices meaning they’re saving a comparable £400 a year and benefiting from more simple pricing strategies.

“Consumers are enjoying a golden period of cheaper groceries with like-for-like prices falling every month since September 2014," explained Fraser McKevitt, Kantar Worldpanel's head of retail and consumer insight.

"Nearly two years of falling prices mean the average household is spending £78.10 a week in the supermarket, so consumers have annually saved more than £400 than if prices had risen at the same rate as the last decade."

The overall grocery market volume growth of 1% was in line with Britain’s increased population, McKevitt said.

“Individual households have stopped increasing the amount of groceries they buy and while it is tempting to correlate lower volumes with the uncertainty surrounding the EU referendum there is no evidence that supermarket purchasing has any significant link with consumer confidence.”

Among the mid-sized groups, Co-operative continued its renaissance, growing sales by 3.3% year-on-year and upping its market share to 6.2% thanks to refurbished stores and an improved range.

Waitrose also gained market share this period, up by 0.1 percentage points to 5.2% on the back of 1.5% sales growth.

The limited assortment discounters (LADs) stood firm at their record market share of 10.4% attained in April.

Lidl grew sales 15.4% and Aldi by 12.5%.