UK: Food retail slows
Edward Garner, director at Kantar Worldpanel, commented: "We are seeing big cutbacks by consumers as they continue to respond to this current period of austerity. The success of the discounters, Aldi and Lidl, is a clear example of shoppers watching their purses, with both retailers continuing to surge ahead. Once again, they both achieve all-time record shares of 2.9% and remarkable growth of 26.1% for Aldi and 11.5% for Lidl. Similarly, although Waitrose is still growing at over double the rate of the whole market, this growth has fallen back to 4.8% from 7.5% last period − suggesting there are signs that the premium sector is beginning to slow.
"Another sign of austerity making an impact is the decline of the premium own label sector. Premium own label products have been in continuous growth since 2008, despite often being more expensive than their brand equivalent. Now; however, they are declining by 6% year-on-year, while economy own labels such as Tesco’s Everyday Value are growing at 13%."
Among the big four supermarkets, fortunes continued unchanged with market share growth for Asda and Sainsbury’s and share dips for Tesco and Morrisons. Meanwhile, frozen food continued to be the top-growing food sector, as consumers looked to reduce waste, helping drive growth at Iceland.
Kantar Worldpanel also said that by its measurement (75,000 identical products compared year-on-year), grocery inflation was 3.8% for the 12-week period, continuing a downward trend from a November 2011 peak of 6.2% and reflecting lower inflation for fresh produce and falling milk prices. Official ONS data on Tuesday showed overall inflation in the UK fell to 2.4% in June, its lowest in more than 2-1/2 years.
Source: kamcity.co.uk
