Tesco leads big four as vegan trend boosts sales - Kantar

Tesco, Asda and Morrisons led the way as sales of fruit and vegetables in supermarkets grew as 'Veganuary' took hold, but Sainsbury's had a dry January even though the sector's alcohol sales fizzed higher.

Health-focused consumer fads saw the industry's total till roll still fall £1.5bn at the start of 2019 compared to the month of excess in December, data from Kantar Worldpanel showed on Tuesday. Even so, the sector remains in growth, with sales in the 12 weeks to 27 January up 1.7% compared to this time last year.

Tesco’s increase sales by 1.0%, boosted by a strong performance from its Exclusively at Tesco fresh food lines, though its leading market share dipped 0.2 percentage points stands at 27.7%.

Of the big four grocers, Asda's growth put it in second place, with double-digit online growth leading to overall expansion of 0.7%, though its market share shrank 0.2 percentage points to 15.3%.

Morrisons sales increased 0.4% but its market share also fell by the same degree to 10.6%. While Tesco said last month that it will close its counters due to changes in shopper habits, Morrisons said it will hire 500 new apprentices for its counters, with Kantar noting that 41% of its customers currently shop at its Market Street stalls.

Seemingly distracted as the deadline for its proposed merger nears, Sainsbury’s continued to find it impossible to arrest its declining sales into 2019, with a fall of 0.3% that saw its market share drop 0.4 percentage points to 15.9%.

“Looking back on 2018 as a whole, one of the most notable consumer trends is the shift to a more plant-based diet," said Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel.

"Today, 1% of all households include a vegan, 5% have a vegetarian and 10% have flexitarians in their ranks. This move has contributed to consumers eating a total of 4.4 billion meat-free dinners in 2018, an increase of 150 million meals on the year before.

Following Christmas indulgence period, sales of fruit, vegetables and salad surge £46m compared with January last year, with cucumbers, carrots and berries proving to be favourites, rocketing by 26%, 22% and 13% respectively. More two-thirds of customers also bought an item labelled ‘free-from’ over the past month, with dairy alternatives like plant milks making up a quarter of total free-from sales.

However, while almost a third of consumers claim to be open to Dry January, this did not stop total alcohol sales increasing 2.9% since New Year's Day.

"All in all, 53% of households bought alcohol in January and while non and low-alcohol beers jumped by 79%, the popular Ginuary helped gin sales grow by 23%,” McKevitt said.

Fellow FTSE 100 member Ocado, on the day of its final results, grew sales 1.0%, keeping its market share steady at 1.1%.

The fastest pace continued to be held by discounters Aldi and Lidl grew 9.1% and 7.3%, growing their respective market shares to 7.5% and 5.3%.

Iceland was the next fastest, growing 2.3% in its 11th successive period of growth, holding its market share at 2.3%.

Waitrose returned to growth over the past 12 weeks, with sales up 0.2% – though the retailer’s market share dropped 0.1 percentage points to 5.1%.