The latest grocery share figures have revealed a drop in growth to 2.1% for the 12 weeks ending 8 July 2012.
The figures, published by Kantar Worldpanel yesterday, compared the drop in growth throughout the supermarket groceries market to a year ago, which stood at 4.2%.
Edward Garner, director at Kantar Worldpanel, said: “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%.”
The frozen food sector is continuing to be the top-growing food sector, as the big four supermarkets – Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s – remain unchanged in market share growth.
Grocery inflation was reported to be 3.8% for the 12-week period ending 8 July 2012, decreasing since the most recent peak of 6.2% in November last year, which has been attributed to lower inflation for fresh produce and falling milk prices.
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