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LONDON, June 23 (Reuters) - Growth in grocery sales in
Britain accelerated to 18.9% in the four weeks to June 14,
driven by the popularity of online and convenience stores during
the coronavirus lockdown, industry data showed on Tuesday.
Market researcher Kantar said online sales rose 91%
year-on-year over the four weeks, with nearly one in five
British households buying over the internet.
It said convenience stores, be they independent retailers or
the smaller formats of major supermarket groups, such as Tesco
Express or Sainsbury's Local, accounted for
14.7% of all sales in the past four weeks.
Kantar said online grocer Ocado and the
Co-operative Group, which has a network of local
stores, were the stand out performers over the 12 weeks to June
14 with year-on-year sales growth of 42.2% and 34.5%
respectively.
Of Britain's big four grocers, market leader Tesco was the
strongest performer with growth of 12.1%, followed by No. 4
Morrisons on 10.5% and No. 2 Sainsbury's on
10.2%. Walmart owned Asda was the laggard with growth of
6.3%.
As was the case in May's data, German owned discounter Aldi
lost market share. It fell to 7.5% from 7.9% this time last
year.
(Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Paul Sandle)