Morrisons emerged the fastest growing of the big four retailers in the latest Kantar figures with growth of 5.6%, increasing its share from 11.8% to 11.9%.

Morrisons was the only big four retailer to grow ahead of the market in this period, for the 12 weeks ending July 10. In the period overall market growth was 4.6%. While the post Easter slump saw growth of 2.5% in the four weeks to May 15, the latest four weeks showed growth of 3.3%.

Tesco reported growth of 4.3% and its share slipped from 30.7% to 30.6%, while Sainsbury’s reported 4.4% growth and its share was static at 16.1%.

Asda, combined with Netto, reported total growth of 1.9% and its share had slipped from 17.5% to 17%. Asda on its own reported growth of 2.8% with a share slide of 16.8% to 16.5%.

The Co-operative reported growth of 15.9% and its share was up from 6.2% to 6.9%.

The research showed Aldi and Lidl continued to post strong double digit growth of 20.2% and 15.6% respectively. Both retailers now represent 6.1% of the market. At the other end of the scale, Waitrose also performed well with growth of 9% increasing its share from 4.1% a year ago to 4.3%.

Grocery inflation crept up from 4.6% to 4.8%.

Martin Whittingham, director at Kantar Worldpanel said: “While we previously predicted that grocery inflation would not exceed 5% in 2011, we believe this no longer to be the case.  It has been growing much faster than anticipated and as such we expect it to reach 5% and perhaps go beyond in the next few months.  However, unlike the high inflation that we saw in 2008, when it was over 10% in a third of the grocery categories, we are only seeing double digit inflation in a small number of categories.

“The increasing inflation rate is putting extra pressure on shoppers’ ability to manage their household budgets.  With this in mind we expect the grocery market to slow in the coming months.”

Market share: Total till roll

Includes all expenditure through main store tills and excludes petrol & instore concessions

 12 Weeks to 11 July 201012 Weeks to 10 July 2011change
 £000s%   * £000s %   *%
Total Till Roll   30,224,670     31,371,300 3.8
 Total Grocers          22,806,470100.0%          23,845,660100.0%4.6
   Total Multiples            22,290,64097.7%            23,279,80097.6%4.4
      Tesco                6,994,60730.7%                7,298,69630.6%4.3
      Total Asda                3,988,47317.5%                4,063,32517.0%1.9
        Asda                3,835,62716.8%                3,942,97716.5%2.8
        Netto                   152,8460.7%                 120,3480.5%-21.3
      Sainsbury’s                3,673,72216.1%3,834,87616.1%4.4
      Morrisons                2,693,14411.8%                2,843,76711.9%5.6
      Co-operative                  1,410,7916.2%                1,634,8396.9%15.9
      Somerfield                   307,6471.3%                      8,1110.0%-97.4
      Waitrose                   941,9094.1%                1,027,0114.3%9.0
      Iceland                   422,6741.9%                   454,5481.9%7.5
      Aldi                   687,0713.0%                   825,6573.5%20.2
      Lidl                   535,5922.3%                   619,0912.6%15.6
      Farm Foods                   134,4560.6%                   133,1540.6%-1.0
      Other Multiples                   500,5562.2%                   536,7262.3%7.2
   Symbols & Independents                 515,8282.3%                 565,8572.4%9.7

* = Percentage Share of Total Grocers