The Fight Before Christmas - How Was It For You?

Edward Garner, Director at Kantar Worldpanel explains:
“We continue to see a price war as the big four battle for market share.  Tesco’s Big Price Drop has had an aggressive response from its competitors and put pressure on its share, which has slipped from 30.5% a year ago to 30.1%.  In contrast, Asda has seen a strong year-on-year performance with its share up from 16.8% to 17.2%. This is in part thanks to the conversion of Netto stores which it acquired earlier in the year.

“Sainsbury’s has also enjoyed a positive year-end performance with its Brand Price Match helping the retailer to grow its share to 16.7%. This is the highest share we have reported for Sainsbury’s since March 2003.  Morrisons also achieved growth just ahead of the market and held share as a result.”

Elsewhere, the ‘Two Nations’ divide remains a prevalent feature of the grocery market with Iceland, Aldi, Lidl and Waitrose all performing strongly.  The performance of the discounters was bolstered by some Netto shoppers turning to their stores.

Edward continues:
“Behind these topline numbers, there is now strong evidence that households are shopping around more.  Nearly all retailers can claim to have more shoppers, who are making more trips than last year.  However, basket sizes are now smaller – a classic response to tight household budgets.”

An update on inflation
Grocery inflation stands at 5.9%* for the 12 week period ending 25 December 2011. This is a decrease on the 6.2% we reported last period.



The latest grocery share figures and comparative data for the last three years are available as an app for the iPhone. To download Kantar Worldpanel’s free ‘Grocer Share’ app please visit the Apple iTunes Store.

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These findings are based on Kantar Worldpanel data for the 12 weeks to 25 December 2011. Kantar Worldpanel monitors the household grocery purchasing habits of 25,000 demographically representative households in Great Britain. All data discussed in the above announcement is based on the value of items being bought by these consumers, Kantar will only support data that is published in the context we have presented it and our own interpretation of these findings. We cannot be held responsible for any other interpretation of these findings.    

About Kantar Worldpanel
For further information, please visit us at www.kantarworldpanel.com
Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/KWP_UK

About Kantar
For further information, please visit us at www.kantar.com

10 January 2012