Top Three Supermarkets Pull Ahead

“The latest TNS Grocery market share figures have just been published for the 12 weeks ending August 14 2005 and competition in the grocery market remains as fierce as ever. Tesco edges forward to another record share of 30.5% which is just ahead of the 30.4% share we saw last period but dramatically ahead of 28.1% seen a year ago.

Sainsbury holds on to its recently improved trend with an annual growth rate of 5% lifting its share from 15.4% a year ago to 15.7% in the current period and for the second successive period Asda’s share shows a turnaround from its recent declines to post a share of 16.7% - up from 16.6% a year ago.

The combined share for Morrisons / Safeway continues to fall sharply as a total of 196 store disposals take their toll on selling space – the most recent sales being another 5 stores to Waitrose which continues its recent record run with an annual growth rate of 18% and a further 9 stores to Sainsbury. The store conversion programme should be completed by the year-end by which time Safeway will cease to exist and we should have a clearer measure of the final size of the Morrison’s operation.

Store conversions within the Somerfield group are reflected in the growth of the Somerfield fascia and the decline of Kwik Save but the aggregate share for the group nevertheless advances from 5.7% a year ago to 5.9% now. “

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About Superpanel
TNS Superpanel is Britain’s leading continuous consumer panel and provides purchasing
information on all main grocery markets. The panel was launched in 1991 and now consists of
15,000 households which are demographically and regionally balanced to offer a representative picture of the British marketplace. Superpanel is the industry standard for measurement of consumer purchasing, and delivers unsurpassed levels of detail and accuracy.

Superpanel covers all FMCG markets and acts as a highly effective market tracking vehicle and consumer diagnostics tool.

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