Waitrose grabs highest grocery market share in its history

The John Lewis Partnership owned grocer increased its share by 0.3% year-on-year as revenue grew 9.3% over the 12 week period.

Tesco and Morrisons both lost share. Tesco’s share dropped from 31.2% to 31% year-on-year and Morrisons plunged from 11.8% to 11.4%.

Meanwhile Sainsbury’s notched up 5.6% growth over the period as its share rose from 16.2% a year ago to 16.5%. Asda also added 0.1% to its share to take it to 17.5%.

Kantar Worldpanel director Edward Garner said Sainsbury’s sponsorship of the Paralympic games has helped it boost sales.

He added: “The retailer has also been bolstered by its Brand Match promotion and the ongoing relaunch of its own label range – both of which are proving popular with consumers.”

The grocery market as a whole is growing at 3.9%. This is above the Kantar Worldpanel inflation measure of 2.6% showing there is currently real growth in the market.

The growth of the discounters has also continued with Aldi the star performer increasing its market share by 0.5% to 2.9%. Both Lidl and Iceland notched up a 0.1%.

Garner said: “Aldi has been delivering growth in excess of 20% per year since mid-2011 – clear evidence that value for money allied to a growing emphasis on product quality is encouraging shoppers to increase their loyalty to the outlet.”