Sainsbury's becomes UK's second biggest supermarket as Asda stalls
Sainsbury's last held the title of Britain's second largest supermarket in January but has won back the position from a struggling Asda
10:54AM BST 28 Jul 2015
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Sainsbury’s has won back the title of the UK’s second largest supermarket,overtaking Asda in market share by a whisker.
The supermarket chain now has a market share of 16.5pc, compared to Asda’s 16.4pc, according to industry figures from Kantar Worldpanel.
Sainsbury’s, which last held the title in January, saw sales decline by 0.3pc, but Asda had a particularly disappointing spell, recording a sales drop of 2.7pc in the 12 weeks to July 19.
Sales at all the ‘big four’ grocers declined in the three month period.
Even the best performer, Morrisons, saw sales fall 0.1pc. At Tesco, sales fell by 0.6pc.
Tesco still has by far the largest share of the UK market at 28.5pc, down only 0.1pc from last month’s figures.
An Asda spokesman said: "We're going through one of the toughest trading periods to face UK supermarkets, so it comes as no surprise that industry figures continue to be volatile from month to month."
Across the groceries sector, sales were up 0.8pc compared to this time last year, for the 12 weeks ending July 19.
The Co-operative supermarket grew sales for the first time in a year, with a new focus on convenience stores seemingly winning customers back.
Sales were up by 1pc at the Co-op, the first growth the Manchester-based grocer has seen since July 2014.
Customer numbers have risen by 133,000, although its market share remains at 6.3pc.
Strong sales in its convenience stores helped Co-op (Alamy)
Smaller and budget retailers like Aldi and Lidl continued to shake up the market, achieving the best growth figures. Aldi grew by 16.6pc while Lidl was up 11.3pc. Iceland sales were up 3pc.
At the other end of the market, growth has accelerated at Waitrose, where sales have gone up by 3pc.
The supermarket recently introduced a headline-grabbing policy of allowing shoppers to choose their own special offers. Waitrose shoppers can now pick 10 products on which they will enjoy a 20pc discount.
Aldi and Lidl now occupy roughly the same amount of space in the market as Waitrose, which has a 5pc share. Aldi's share is up to 5.6pc and Lidl 4pc - both all-time highs for the brands.
Waitrose has tried to win shoppers by letting them pick their discounts
Fraser McKevitt, head of consumer and retail insight at Kantar Worldpanel, said: “The continued slow growth of the overall market can be explained by minimal volume growth and lower like-for-like prices, both as a result of cheaper commodity prices and the fierce competition between supermarkets.
"Comparable groceries are now 1.6% cheaper than a year ago, meaning prices have been falling since September 2014, although they are projected to start rising again by early 2016.”
