// UK grocery market experiences slowdown in growth thanks to cold weather
// Grocery sales up 1.4% during the 12 weeks to June 16
// Supermarkets face costs of over £120 million in missed sales
The UK grocery market has continued to slow thanks to the recent spate of cold weather, as sales saw an uptick of a mere 0.4 per cent in the last four weeks, according to Nielsen data.
However, Kantar Worldpanel reports that the “British summer is yet to sizzle” as grocery sales grew 1.4 per cent year on year during the 12 weeks to June 16.
Both sets of data reported that the UK’s supermarkets face costs of over £120 million in missed sales thanks to the “monsoon” weather causing a slowdown in growth.
According to Kantar, German discounter Aldi experienced an influx of an additional 883,000 shoppers in the 12 week period, with sales up 9.4 per cent, and market share increased by 7.9 per cent.
“Aldi’s announcement that it is rolling out more small, ‘Local’ format stores in London looks like an attempt to increase its share in the capital, where it currently takes home just one out of every £30 of supermarket spend,” Kantar head of retail and consumer insight, Fraser McKevitt said.
Nielsen’s data argues that over the last 12 weeks, sales at the Big 4 grocers were flat or in slight decline, with the strongest sales at The Co-op – up 1.9 per cent, Iceland – 2.2 per cent, Aldi – 9.4 per cent, and Lidl – 15.2 per cent.
Meanwhile, Tesco dominates with a market share of 26.5 per cent according to Nlelsen, and 27.3 per cent according to Kantar.
According to Kantar, “Tesco sales were flat year on year despite an increase in volumes sold”.
Kantar also found Sainsbury’s sales have dipped by 0.6 per cent in the latest 12 weeks, while Asda’s sales fell by 0.1 per cent though it will be buoyed by the performance of its online arm, which enjoyed double-digit growth of 10 per cent.
Moreover, Kantar found that Morrisons’ sales decreased by 0.5 per cent, lowering its share to 10.4 per cent of grocery sales.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette’s free daily email newsletter
