Britain’s retail sector continues to show “sluggish growth” with an increase in sales of just 0.9% compared to one year ago, according to the latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel.
Covering the 12 weeks ending August 16, 2015, the organisation’s new report records “another successful period” for the discounters, with growth at Aldi accelerating to 18% while Lidl’s sales have risen by 12.8%, taking its market share to a new high of 4.1%.
“As anticipated, Asda has retaken its position as Britain’s second largest supermarket, despite a fall in sales of 2.5% and a 0.6% fall in market share,” said Kantar Worldpanel’s head of retail and consumer insight, Fraser McKevitt (pictured above).
Sainsbury’s is the only one of the “big four” retailers to have seen an increase in sales, which are up by 0.1%, its first growth since March. Sales at Tesco, meanwhile, fell by 0.9% and the retailer now holds 28.3% of the market.
On prices, the reports shows grocery inflation standing at minus 1.7% for the 12-week period, which means shoppers are now paying less for a representative basket of groceries than they did in 2014.
This is a greater fall than the minus 1.6% reported last month and means that prices are falling faster than they were previously.
