Big Four supermarkets ailing as Christmas food battle hots up

The UK’s biggest supermarkets are struggling to keep up with rivals as they enter the key Christmas trading period, it emerged on Tuesday.

Three of the Big Four grocers — Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda — lost shoppers to rivals in the 12 weeks to October 7, according to the latest industry data from Kantar.

Tesco’s market share fell from 28% to 27.4%, Sainsbury’s was down from 15.8% to 15.4% and Asda’s decreased from 15.5% to 15.3% compared with this time last year. Morrisons’ was flat at 10.3%.

Discounter Aldi continued to snap at their heels. Its growing number of stores helped it increase its market share by 0.8% to 7.6% and sales rose by 15.1% — the fastest growth since January for the German chain.

Giles Hurley, Aldi’s UK chief executive, said: “Savvy shoppers are switching to Aldi because they know other supermarkets can’t match our combination of quality products at the lowest possible prices."

Competitor Lidl was not far behind, with sales growth of 10% and a market share of 5.6%.

Bar Aldi and Lidl, the Co-op was the only bricks-and-mortar grocer to grow its market share from 6.2% to 6.4%, boosted by a 7% rise in sales. Shoppers were particularly drawn to its own-label lines, buying 10% more of these ranges than this time last year.

Kantar’s Fraser McKevitt said “consumer spending often slows in early autumn, after the excesses of summer barbecues and before the festive season kicks off”. Kantar said shoppers have already been getting into the spirit of Christmas, spending £4 million on mince pies.