Strong Christmas for Tesco & the discounters

During this Christmas, the grocery giant Tesco was the only big grocer in the UK to grow according to the figures by Kantar Wolrdpanel. Tesco had the biggest market share gain against last year, 0,6%-points. It was the only one of the big four to grow its share as Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons all saw a slight decline.

Also the German discounters Aldi and Lidl were able to increase their share, even though only slightly. Aldi grew by 0,3%-points and Lidl by 0,2%-points. Christmas is not the strong point of the year for the discounters. they tend to have slightly higher market share during the summer. During last summer Aldi managed to grow already to beyond 8% market share. The combined market share of the discounters has reached 14%. It is a very significant share of the market and has come from the expense of the big four (Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda & Morrisons).

During the last decade the combined market share of the Big 4 has declined from 76,5% to 68% as the discounters have steadily grown their share.

Market declining slightly, online more

After last years really strong Christmas trading, the grocers struggled to reach last years levels. Thus, the market declined by 0,2%-points. For online the comparison figures were even more difficult to achieve. As result, online decreased by 3,7%-points to representing about 12% of all grocery retailing.

For both two big grocers, Tesco and Sainsbury’s, online is still significantly up from the pre-pandemic levels. On the other hand, online has declined the peaks of last year.