Good news has been in short supply recently for Tesco but at last there is some data that the group’s new chief executive Dave Lewis can cheer.
Tesco increased sales by 0.3 per cent in the 12 weeks to February 1 compared to the same period a year earlier – marking a return to growth for the first time since January 2014. Market share data from Kantar Worldpanel shows that Tesco is finally bouncing back after the toughest year in its history, despite having to wage a fierce price war with rivals.
An additional 236,000 shoppers walked through the doors of a Tesco during the 12-week period.
It isn’t time to get the party poppers out quite yet though. Despite the sales rise, Kantar said Tesco’s overall share of the UK grocery market fell 0.2 percentage points to 29 per cent.
Asda leapfrogged J Sainsbury to reclaim its spot at Britain’s second biggest retailer with a 16.9 per cent share of the market.
But both chains experienced a sales decline during the 12 weeks year on year. Asda’s sales fell 1.7 per cent and Sainsbury’s by 1 per cent.
Sales at Wm Morrison were also down by 0.4 per cent, although Kantar said this was the best performance for the retailer- which recently ousted its CEO Dalton Philips – since December 2013. For once, the news wasn’t quite so overwhelmingly positive for the German discounters Lidl and Aldi either.
Fraser McKevitt of Kantar Worldpanel said the two chains, which have been attracting shoppers through their doors with offers such as £3.99 woks and
cheap champagne, will find their 2014 growth rates difficult to match this year.
He said:
Early results suggest that discounters Aldi and Lidl will find their accelerated growth levels hard to match in 2015. Aldi’s growth of 21.2 per cent is still impressive but a relative slowing from its 36 per cent peak in April 2014.
Likewise, Lidl’s maximum growth of 24 per cent in May last year is now down to 14.2 per cent. Despite this slowdown, both retailers are still taking share from the other retailers – rising 0.8 percentage points and 0.4 percentage points respectively to 4.9 per cent and 3.5 per cent.
Tesco Graphic by Shuttlestock