market share ASDA

UK: Asda sees market share hit record 17.3%

Asda has taken its highest- ever share of the UK grocery market, figures published yesterday show as retailers seen as budget operators are benefiting from shoppers hunting for value.

The UK's second-largest supermarket, owned by US giant Wal-Mart, took a market share of 17.3% in the 12 weeks ended September 7, figures from analyst TNS Worldpanel show, a record high for the company and up from 17% in the same period last year.

Asda chief executive Andy Bond yesterday sought to enhance its value reputation by announcing he is cutting the price of 5000 items and predicted that food price inflation has peaked.

Morrison also did well, recording the biggest year-on-year change among the big four supermarkets, up 9.1% with its market share rising from 10.8% to 11%.

Discounters saw their turnovers increase massively with Aldi and Lidl posting increases of 20.8% and 11.1% respectively, although their market shares remain small at 2.9% and 2.4%. Freezer centre Iceland produced a 12.9% increase in sales, taking its share to 1.7% of the market. In contrast, Tesco, while maintaining its dominance of the sector, saw its market share slip by 20 basis points to 31.5% while Sainsbury fell by the same to 15.8%.

Upmarket John Lewis-owned Watirose was particularly hard hit with growth held back to just 3.2% year on year, taking its share down 0.1 points to 3.8%.

The overall grocery market turnover grew 7.3% com-pared to last year, but TNS Worldpanel director of research Ed Garner said this hid static volumes with inflation of 9% boosting the numbers.


Source: theherald.co.uk

Publication date: 9/17/2008