The Big Four supermarkets should get used to industry growth of 1% or less, the market research group Kantar Worldpanel has suggested.
The latest grocery share figures from Kantar show year-on-year sales growth of 0.9% in the 12 weeks to 16 August.
Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel, described the sluggish growth rate as “the new normal”, noting that industry growth of around or below 1% has now persisted since summer 2014.
“Despite the accelerating British economy like-for like grocery prices are still falling, with a representative basket of everyday items now 1.7% cheaper than in 2014,” McKevitt said.
Outside of the big four, frozen food specialist Iceland seems to be having success with its campaign at moving upmarket, with sales up 3.4% from a year ago, though its market share remains stable at 2%.
Waitrose, already upmarket, saw growth of 3.7%, driven by its “Pick Your Own Offers” promotion while at the convenience end of the market, the Co-operative saw growth for the second month in a row, with sales up 1.1% on a year ago.
Rumours of Asda’s decline – at their height a week ago when it posted its worst quarterly sales performance since being taken over by the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart – may have been overcooked, as it regained its position as the UK second largest supermarket chain in terms of market share.
This was despite a 2.5% fall in sales and a reduction in market share of 0.6 percentage points.
Sainsbury’s (LON:SBRY) was the only one of the big four to see an improvement in sales – up 0.1% - while sector leader Tesco (LON:TSCO) saw its sales ease 0.9%.
Tesco’s market share is 28.3% while Sainsbury’s is 16.3%.
Morrisons (LON:MORW) saw its sales decline accelerate to 1.1%.