Co-op and Iceland see sales grow
THE Co-op’s focus on convenience and price and Iceland’s wider range of premium products have seen both retailers faring well in the latest grocery market figures.
The figures from Kantar Worldpanel show The Co-op’s sales rising 1% in the for the 12 weeks to October 11, while Deeside-based Iceland enjoyed 3.2% growth – its sixth successive month of gains.
The smaller chains – the Co-op is the fifth-largest grocer in the UK and Iceland the ninth – came as the big four supermarkets, Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons struggled to grow amid an ongoing price war.
Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel, said: “With like-for-like grocery prices 1.7% lower than last year, the supermarket price war shows no signs of abating. Consumers have now enjoyed more than 12 months of continually falling prices and are currently pocketing these benefits rather than splashing out on substantially more grocery items, with overall volume growth of only 2%. This equates to £1.5bn taken out of the market in the last year, saving each household £58 on average.”
Sainsbury’s was the only one of the larger supermarkets to see sales growth this period, and a strong performance in its online and Local stores helped it to increase revenues by 1.1%, though market share was static at 16.1%.
Sales fell at Tesco by 1.7%, at Asda sales fell by 3%, bringing its market share down by 0.7 percentage points to 16.6%. Meanwhile, sales at Morrisons fell by 1.0%, taking share to 10.8%.
