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* UK grocery sales up 18.9% in 4 weeks to June 14 - Kantar
* Online sales up 91% year-on-year
* Ocado, Co-op, Iceland the star performers
* Tesco best performer of big four
(Adds detail)
By James Davey
LONDON, June 23 (Reuters) - Grocery sales in Britain surged
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.
Online sales rose 91% year-on-year over the four weeks,
market researcher Kantar said, reflecting a change in behaviour
with nearly one in five British households now buying over the
internet.
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 four week period, Kantar said.
Rival market researcher Nielsen also highlighted the strong
performance of convenience stores.
“We’re still shopping less frequently but shoppers are
gradually changing their behaviour," said Fraser McKevitt, head
of retail and consumer insight at Kantar.
He noted that households made 77 million fewer trips to the
supermarket in the latest four weeks compared with last year -
19 million more than in May, reflecting the slight easing of
government restrictions.
Kantar said online grocer Ocado, the Co-operative
Group, which has a network of local stores, and frozen
food specialist Iceland, were the standout performers over the
12 weeks to June 14 with year-on-year sales growth of 42.2%,
34.5% and 31.4% respectively.
Of Britain's four major grocers, Kantar said 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 again the laggard with
growth of 6.3%.
As was the case in May, German-owned discounter Aldi lost
market share. It fell to 7.5% from 7.9% this time last year.
However, rival discounter Lidl saw its share edge up to 5.8%.
Kantar said UK grocery inflation was 4.0% for the 12-week
period, with prices rising fastest in markets such as bacon,
sausages and cooked meats while falling in poultry, bread and
eggs.
Market share and sales growth (%)
12 wks to 12 wks to pct change
June 14 2020 June 16 2019 in sales
Tesco 26.9 27.3 12.1
Sainsbury's 14.9 15.3 10.2
Asda 13.9 14.9 6.3
Morrisons 10.1 10.4 10.5
Aldi 7.5 7.9 8.0
Co-operative 7.4 6.2 34.5
Lidl 5.8 5.7 14.3
Waitrose 4.8 5.0 8.6
Iceland 2.5 2.1 31.4
Ocado 1.7 1.3 42.2
Source: Kantar
(Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Paul Sandle and Susan
Fenton)
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