German discounter Aldi has leapfrogged Waitrose in the leaderboard to become Britain’s sixth-largest supermarket.
Following double-digit sales growth for the past four years, Aldi now holds 5.3% of the market in the latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel for the 12 weeks to 29 March 2015.
More than half a million new shoppers have chosen to visit Aldi this year and average basket sizes have increased by 7%. Its sales have risen by 16.8% in the latest period, which is still high in comparison to other retailers, but slower relative to its recent performance.
Lidl and Waitrose were the only other retailers to grow sales ahead of the market and increase their market shares in the latest period. Waitrose’s sales were up 2.9% compared with this time last year and accounted for 5.1% of the market. Its sales have been in growth since March 2009.
Lidl saw 12.1% sales growth in this period, giving it a 3.7% share of the market.
Meanwhile. Sainsbury’s is back in growth (0.2%) for the first time since August 2014 after bringing in more shoppers. This has slowed the rate at which it is losing market share, which stands at 16.4%, down 0.1 percentage points.
Tesco also grew sales, up 0.3%, while Asda and Morrisons declined by 1.1% and 0.7% respectively.
Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight, said: “The changing structure of Britain’s supermarket landscape is illustrated by two facts. Firstly, the so-called discounters, Aldi and Lidl, now command a combined 9% share of the market. In 2012 the same two retailers only accounted for 5.4% of grocery sales. Secondly, the 72.8% share taken by the biggest four retailers is now at its lowest level in a decade.”
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