Sainsbury's is the only big-four supermarket to gain market share for the 12 weeks ending 18 August, according to the latest data from Kantar Worldpanel.
The retailer achieved sales growth of 4.9 per cent and grew its market share by 0.1 percentage points to 16.5 per cent for the period.
However, the fortunes of Sainsbury's were not mirrored by Tesco, with the UK's number-one retailer seeing its market share fall by 0.7 points to 30.2 per cent in comparison to the same period last year. Despite announcing its new fresh produce-heavy Love Every Mouthful campaign, the retailer has struggled and recently received negative press due to a fine relating to its price promotions on strawberries.
John Coll, director at Kantar Worldpanel, said: “Sainsbury’s has benefited from its support of the Paralympics last year and its growth has continued since then. It now holds 16.5 per cent of the grocery market and it is the only one of the big-four supermarkets to make gains in share this period.”
Waitrose, Aldi and Lidl also maintain their recent strong performance, with each posting robust sales growth of 9.1, 31.9 and 14.9 per cent respectively, rates well above the market average.
'Aldi and Lidl maintain a record market share for the discount sector at 6.8 per cent, with respective shares of 3.7 per cent and 3.1 per cent as some consumers continue to adapt their shopping strategies as pressure on wallets continues,' added Coll.
Rounding off the big four, Asda and Morrisons saw respective market share declines of 0.4 and 0.2 points for the most recent period. Asda achieved a market share of 17.1 per cent and Morrisons of 11.3 per cent.