Slowest grocery market growth in 10 years

Grocery market growth fell to 0.9% in the 12 weeks ending 20 July 2014. This was the slowest growth in the 10 years, said analyst Kantar Worldpanel. Grocery price inflation for the same period was 0.4%, said the company.

Its latest set of grocery market figures shows the trend of rapid discounter growth continuing, with Aldi’s 32% growth giving it a market share of 4.8%, bringing it very close to Waitrose’s 4.9%.

Competitive pricing among the big grocers and deflation in the price of staple items such as vegetables, milk and bread had driven inflation to the lowest level since October 2006, said Kantar.

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Lidl’s sales grew by almost 20% and it retained its record share of 3.6%, while Waitrose sales rose by 3.4%.

Among the big four grocers, both Asda and Sainsbury’s held on to their respective market shares of 17.0% and 16.6%. However, Tesco and Morrisons each lost 3.8% compared with this time last year, to give them 28.9% and 11% shares of the grocery market respectively.