Supermarket battle heats up between major players

SUPERMARKET chain Asda saw its market share dip slightly during the key Christmas trading period as Yorkshire rival Morrisons continued to enjoy growth.

Asda is still the second largest UK grocery chain but saw its market share slip 0.2% to 17% as Morrisons saw a 0.6% growth in its market share to 12.3%.

The latest grocery market share figures from Kantar Worldpanel (formerly TNS Worldpanel), published for the 12 weeks to February 21 reveal that Tesco is the undoubted market leader with 30.4% – having increased its market share by 0.3% over the same period.

Sainsbury’s grew for a 12 successive period, strengthening its position on third place with a market share of 16.3%.

Meanwhile the Co-operative Group out-performed its rivals in the grocery market growing its sales by 16.3% over the Christmas trading period.

The Manchester-based group – which bought Somerfield last year to take fifth place in the sector – now commands 5.7% of the market.

Its strong performance was driven by a £200m package of price cuts and promotions over the festive period.

Iceland, the Deeside-based frozen foods specialist is the ninth- largest grocer in the market and grew its sales 6% to 2% of the total market in period.
  
Ed Garner, communications director at Kantar Worldpanel, said: “The post-Christmas period is traditionally characterised by price wars but this year we’re seeing a step-up in marketing activities such as loyalty schemes and coupons to attract consumers’ share of wallet.

“Tesco has undoubtedly turned up the heat for Asda this month but the battle is by no means over.  Asda has reacted strongly with a major coupon scheme of its own and we expect to see the impact of this latest consumer onslaught in next month’s figures.”