Tesco loses out to Asda, Morrisons

3 February 2009 06:26pm

The winners and losers in the Christmas grocery battle were confirmed as figures revealed Asda and Morrisons gained market share at the expense of Tesco.

Sector heavyweight Tesco saw its slice of the grocery market drop from 31.2% to 30.7% in the 12 weeks to January 25 compared to the previous year.

The figures from industry researchers TNS Worldpanel follow the supermarket's worst Christmas in almost 20 years, with like-for-like sales growth of just 2.5%.

TNS said the grocery market grew 6.4% despite shoppers cutting back elsewhere on the high street, but supermarkets felt the effects of consumers trading down to value ranges, with premium products under pressure.

This factor, according to TNS, contributed to Tesco's share dropping, as its customers switched from Finest to Value and Tesco Discount brands.

The move towards value-for-money could also be seen as rivals Asda and Morrisons grew their shares from 16.9% to 17.2%, and 11.6% to 11.9% respectively, both "well ahead" of the market.

Asda has announced it will create 7,000 new jobs this year through new openings and expansions, while Morrisons saw like-to-like sales jump 8.2% over Christmas.

Iceland also performed well during the festive season, with its share growing from 1.8% to 2% as it promoted its party food heavily. Sainsbury's saw its share dip slightly from 16.3% to 16.2%, despite reporting a like-for-like sales rise of 4.5% over the Christmas period, while upmarket retailer Waitrose saw its share decline from 3.9% to 3.7%.

Budget supermarket Aldi, which said its sales rose by a quarter in 2008 as the credit crunch sent well-heeled consumers looking for bargains, saw its share increase from 2.6% to 3%. Fellow discounter Lidl also grew its share, from 2.2% to 2.3%.

Marks & Spencer, which saw like-for-like sales slide 7.1% over the Christmas period, was not included in the list.

© The Press Association