Sainsbury’s has emerged the Christmas winner among the big four grocers as it was the only one to have increased its market share over the festive period, according to Kantar Worldpanel.

For the 12 weeks ending December 26, Sainsbury’s increased its share from 16.3% to 16.6%.

Tesco matched its market growth so its share remains unchanged at 30.5%.

Both Asda and Morrisons, however, experienced small drops in share of 0.1%, with Asda on 16.8% and Morrisons on 12.2%.

Waitrose also enjoyed strong growth of 9.4%, helped by its Delia and Heston advertising.

The Co-op reported 29.7% growth, moving its share from 5.4% to 6.7%.

The grocery sector in general reported 5.1% growth for the period. Kantar said non-grocery retailers suffered a 2.3% decline in sales.

Edward Garner, communications director at Kantar Worldpanel said: “Widespread disruption caused by the heavy snow before Christmas meant that many consumers only ventured outdoors for essential grocery shopping trips this year.

“The high streets are usually at their busiest over the festive period but this Christmas shoppers chose instead to stock up on non-food items such as DVDs, toys and books while doing their grocery shop. Increased spending levels rather than shopper numbers were therefore the driving force behind the strong growth of the grocery sector this period.”

After a turbulent few months, discounters Aldi and Lidl grew ahead of the market in the period.

Inflation for the period stands at 3%, largely unchanged for the last five Kantar reports.

 

  12 Weeks to 27 December 2009  12 Weeks to 26 December 2010 change
 £000s%   * £000s %   *%
Total Till Roll    34,083,230     35,056,060 2.9
 Total Grocers          23,873,300100.0%          25,082,480100.0%5.1
   Total Multiples            23,367,71097.9%            24,552,11097.9%5.1
      Tesco                7,284,90530.5%                7,650,44230.5%5.0
      Asda                4,024,10416.9%                4,207,67016.8%4.6
      Sainsbury’s                3,899,36416.3%                4,171,42016.6%7.0
      Morrisons                2,942,21512.3%                3,059,53612.2%4.0
      Co-operative                  1,285,9175.4%                1,668,4086.7%29.7
      Somerfield                   459,2401.9%                    46,4390.2%-89.9
      Waitrose                   960,6094.0%                1,050,5764.2%9.4
      Iceland                   462,4521.9%                   476,9131.9%3.1
      Aldi                   747,2233.1%                   796,3853.2%6.6
      Lidl                   556,7742.3%                   606,3512.4%8.9
      Netto                   168,6120.7%                   163,1270.7%-3.3
      Farm Foods                   110,4620.5%                   128,5350.5%16.4
      Other Multiples                   465,8342.0%                   526,3062.1%13.0
Symbols & Indendents                 505,5892.1%                 530,3692.1%4.9

* = Percentage Share of Total Grocers

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