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While attention has inevitably been on the first rise in grocery price inflation since March last year, the latest till roll data from Kantar Worldpanel also contains valuable insights into the grocery market itself.
The figures highlight in particular the continued success of the biggest two players in the market, Tesco and Sainsbury’s, in terms of pulling away from the rest of the pack.
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Sainsbury’s, under chief executive Simon Roberts, appears to be in particularly fine fettle. Its share of the grocery market, during the 12 weeks to 4 August, came in at 15.3% – up from 14.8% in the corresponding period last year.
Much of the share that Tesco and Sainsbury’s have been taking has come from the other two traditional members of the ‘big four’ – Asda and Morrisons – although the latter, under its newish chief executive Rami Baitieh, is back to sales growth and looks to have stabilised its market share.
Executives at Tesco in particular are said to regard Mr Baitieh, a former colonel in the French Air Force who previously ran the domestic operations of French grocery giant Carrefour, with great respect.
Asda, on the other hand, looks to be in a very bad way.
An astonishing fall from grace for Asda
Its market share during the period fell to 12.6%, down from 13.7% a year ago, which is an astonishing fall from grace.
It does not seem that long ago that Asda first overtook Sainsbury’s to become the market’s second-biggest player – an event celebrated by Tony DeNunzio, Asda’s then chief executive, by giving all 125,000 UK employees an extra day off.
In fact, though, it was as long ago as August 2003 – when Asda, then owned by the US giant Walmart, had a 17% market share and Sainsbury’s was at 16.1%.
However, following a turnaround under then chief executive Justin King, Sainsbury’s recaptured the number two spot in 2013.
The pair went on to be neck and neck for most of the next few years but Asda…
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