Yorkshire supermarket becomes fastest-growing grocer of the Big Four

Morrisons has become the fastest-growing retailer of the past 12 weeks according to Kantar Worldpanel, but this has not stopped the ascent of discounters.

Aldi has become the UK’s fifth largest grocer, with sales up 12.4% year on year, overtaking the Co-operative. Just a decade ago it was the tenth largest, accounting for less than 2% of the grocery market.

Morrisons increased its market share for the first time since June 2015 with a sales uplift of 1.9% year on year.

Growth came from across the store, but premium own label was a “real bright spot” according to Kantar, with sales up by 35%. its revamped ‘The Best’ range made its way into 14% of Morrisons baskets.

It enjoyed its best Christmas trading period for seven years in 2016.

Strong sales pushed up its share price in January, just under two years since chief executive David Potts took over.

Morrisons has continued its investment in its future, with the launch of a technology startup incubator which it will support to nurture early-stage businesses specialising in productivity management.

It also acquired potato packing business Farmcare earlier this year.

Asda was the only one of nine major retailers not to see positive sales growth during the past 12 weeks.

It saw a 1.9% fall in sales, but this signals a decline which continues to slow according to Kantar.

Its share dropped by 0.6 percentage points over the quarter, but the retailer did manage to increase the number of shoppers visiting its stores compared to the same period last year.

Asda suffered the worst performance of any of the big four supermarkets over Christmas, taking £4.32bn in the period – down 2.4% on a year earlier.

Sales fell more than £100m, despite consumers spending an extra half a billion pounds in the 12 weeks to January 1, 2017, which was the fastest recorded growth since June 2014.

It had invested £30m in its own brand and premium ranges. Despite this, Asda said the results were “a considerable improvement” but this still proves a major challenge to Sean Clarke, new chief executive who took over from Andy Clarke last year.