All four of the UK’s biggest supermarkets lost market share to German discounters Aldi and Lidl in the 12 weeks to January 27, according to industry data.
Kantar Wordpanel revealed J Sainsbury plc (LON:SBRY) was the worst performer over the period, with its market share falling 0.4 percentage points (pts) from a year ago to 15.9% and sales dropping 0.3%.
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Asda’s market share fell 0.2pts to 15.3% while its sales increased 0.7%.
Tesco PLC’s (LON:TSCO) market share also fell 0.2pts to 27.7% even as sales rose 1.0% - the fastest rate of growth since September 2018.
WM Morrison Supermarkets PLC (LON:MRW) sales gained 0.4% but its market share fell 0.2pts to 10.6%.
Aldi was the fastest growing supermarket with its share of the market rising 0.5pts to 7.5% as sales gained 9.1%.
Fellow discounter Lidl saw its sales rise 7.3% and market share edge up 0.3pts to 7.3%.
Veganuary boosts fruit and vegetable sales
Kantar said Veganuary, an event in January where people go vegan for the month, boosted sales of fruit, vegetables and salad by £46mln compared to a year ago.
“Cucumbers, carrots and berries in particular proved to be shopper favourites, rocketing by 26%, 22% and 13% respectively,” said Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar.
“Meanwhile, over two-thirds of customers 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.”
He said one of the most notable consumer trends seen in 2018 was the shift to a more plant-based diet. About 1% of households have a vegan, 5% have a vegetarian and 10% have flexitarians under their roofs.
“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,” McKevitt said.
However, Dry January did not stop alcohol sales from rising 10% over the last four weeks.