Ocado Share News (OCDO)

* UK grocery sales up 0.3% in 12 weeks to Jan. 26 - Kantar
* "Dry January" and "Veganuary" impact sales
* All big four players see sales declines, market share
losses
* Grocery inflation 1% for 12 week period

(Adds details, table, updates shares)
By James Davey
LONDON, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Britain's supermarkets suffered a
slow start to 2020 as shoppers embraced the "Dry January" and
"Veganuary" campaigns to shun alcohol and meat, industry data
showed on Tuesday.
Market researcher Kantar said total UK grocery sales rose
just 0.3% in the 12 weeks to Jan. 26, with the traditional "big
four" supermarket groups all seeing year-on-year sales declines.
"Many people start the year with good intentions and pledges
to make healthier choices following the excesses of the festive
period," said Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer
insight at Kantar.
The researcher said No. 2 player Sainsbury's, which
last month named a new CEO, was the least worst performer of the
big four with a sales decline of 0.6%.
"While still declining, Sainsbury's performance is
improving, and online sales were a bright spot – growing by 7%
year on year," said Kantar.
Industry leader Tesco, Walmart-owned Asda
and Morrisons saw sales falls of 0.9%, 2.2% and 3.0%
respectively.
All of the big four continued to lose market share to
German-owned discounters Aldi and Lidl, whose sales
rose 5.7% and 11.1% respectively, giving them a combined market
share of 13.8%. Unlike the big four they are continuing to open
lots of new stores.
Kantar said online supermarket Ocado was Britain's
fastest growing grocer, with sales up 11.2%.
Shares in Sainsbury's were up 1.1% at 0906 GMT, Tesco was up
0.7% and Morrisons was up 1.2%. The FTSE 100 index was up 1.5%.
Last month, Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons all reported
subdued Christmas trading, blaming a tough consumer backdrop.

Kantar said grocery inflation was 1.0% over the 12 weeks.
Prices are rising fastest in categories such as bacon, sausages
and cooked meat, while falling in butter and fresh poultry.

Market share and sales (%)
12 wks to 12 wks to pct change
Jan 26 2020 Jan 27 2019 in sales
Tesco 27.3 27.7 -0.9
Sainsbury's 15.8 15.9 -0.6
Asda 14.9 15.3 -2.2
Morrisons 10.3 10.6 -3.0
Aldi 7.9 7.5 5.7
Co-operative 6.0 5.9 2.7
Lidl 5.9 5.3 11.1
Waitrose 5.0 5.1 -1.5
Iceland 2.3 2.3 1.4
Ocado 1.4 1.2 11.2
Source: Kantar


(Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Paul Sandle and Mark
Potter)