4 | The Grocer | 13 January 2018 Get the full story at thegrocer.co.uk
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Lidl wins Christmas but the
surprise package is... Asda
The Grocer news team
Amid a flurry of trading
results this week, food
retailers added an extra
£1bn in sales in the run-
up to Christmas, Kantar
Worldpanel figures have
revealed, with the dis-
counters leading the
charge, but Asda and
Morrisons also growing
sales strongly in the lat-
est four-week period to 1
January.
Tesco had been tipped
to ‘win’ Christmas,
and 12-week sales
data showed its strong
momentum from the
autumn continued, but
sluggish general mer-
chandise sales and a
hit from the collapse of
Palmer & Harvey took
the shine off the final
four-week period, result-
ing in only a small uptick
(to 3.8%) in sales in
December.
That still meant Tesco
UK like-for-like sales
for the six weeks to 6
January were up 1.9%,
but it could have been so
much better, given 3.4%
growth in like-for-like
food sales.
“We have continued to
outperform the market
throughout this period,
particularly in fresh food,
thanks to our most com-
petitive offer for many
years,” said Tesco CEO
Dave Lewis.
“Incorporating Palmer
& Harvey volumes and
the complexity [arising]
during this peak period
was challenging, result-
ing in lost tobacco sales
across December and
putting further strain
on our distribution
network, particularly
post-Christmas. Whilst
I am pleased to say
these challenges have
been resolved, they
took the shine off an
otherwise outstanding
per for ma nce.”
That left Morrisons as
the standout performer
among the listed grocers,
with a 2.8% rise in group
like-for-like sales exclud-
ing fuel for the 10 weeks
to 7 January, with Kantar
data showing a 2ppt
growth to 4.1% over the
four-week period.
Morrisons CEO David
Potts put the results
down to a focus on basics
such as improving avail-
ability, range and cus-
tomer service. “A lot
better than spending
millions on consultants,”
he said.
But the greatest gains
in the latest four-week
period came at Asda,
with growth acceleratingby over 3ppts to 5.3%.
Asda declined to com-
ment on its performance
but availability, service
and pricing metrics over
the autumn all suggest a
marked improvement.
The biggest winners,
however, were the dis-
counters. Lidl was the
fastest growing super-
market over Christmas,
with total sales up 16%
in December, and Kantar
four-week data shows
growth increased by
2.1ppts to 18.9%.
Lidl did not reveal
like-for-like sales, but
Bernstein analyst Bruno
Monteyne believed this
to have been around
2.5%, similar to the cal-
culation he made last
week for Aldi, which said
its sales were up 15%
during December. This
represents a slowdown
in like-for-like growth
from around 5% in theprevious year for the dis-
counters, according to
Monteyne. Aldi’s four-
week growth rose 0.7ppts
to 17.5 %.
Sainsbury’s had a
steady if not spectac-
ular Christmas, with
like-for-likes up 1.1%,
while a decline in GM
sales was offset by bet-
ter than expected profit
synergies from the Argos
integration.
“We had a strong
Christmas and record
sales in the Christmas
week,” said CEO Mike
Coupe. “Our operational
performance was excel-
lent, we delivered great
availability, customer
satisfaction was strong
and we had our lowest-
ever levels of Christmas
food wa ste.”
“If you look at the
[four-week] Kantar data
[up 1ppt to 3%], you can
see particularly in ourfood business we did
pretty well and held our
own against our main-
stream competition,” he
added.
Trading at Waitrose
also improved, with like-
for-like sales up 1.5%,
with a near 2ppt gain
to 4.2% in the latest
four-week, according to
Kantar. Waitrose MD Rob
Collins said shoppers
“came in their droves”
but admitted margins
came under pressure
due to competition in the
sector.
“We saw this com-
ing. As a partnership we
are very focused on pre-
dicting what we think
is going to happen and
making sure we are well
positioned to respond.”
Other big winners
over Christmas were the
Co-op, which said its like-
for-likes in the two weeks
to 1 January were up
6.2%, resulting in a 2ppts
improvement in its sales
performance to 2% in
four-week sales, accord-
ing to Kantar’s data.
Marks & Spencer also
enjoyed a boost in sales –
supported by store open-
ings – increasing from
4.4% to 6% in the four-
week Christmas trading
period, but recorded a
1.4% fall in like-for-like
sales for the 13 weeks
to 30 December. Food
like-for-likes were down
0.4%, while clothing
and home was down
2.8%. M&S CEO Steve
Rowe blamed “ongoing
trading pressures in the
lead-up to Christmas as
consumer spending and
choices reflected tighter
b u dg e t s ”.Tesco delivered a strong performance in the latest Kantar Worldpanel grocery share
figures. However these reflect total sales rather than like-for-like performance. While
Asda has not reported separate figures, the latest four-week sales show a big share gainGROCERY MARKET SHARE – TOTAL TILL ROLL
Source: Kantar Worldpanel(^) 1 JANUARY 2017 12 WEEKS TO^ 31 DECEMBER 2018 12 WEEKS TO^ % CHANGE
£m % £m % %
Total grocers 27,824 100.0 28,872 100.0 3.
Total multiples 2 7, 3 2 4 98.2 28,392 98.3 3.
Tesco 7,852 28.2 8,097 28.0 3.
Sainsbury’s 4,651 16.7 4,74 4 16.4 2.
Asda 4,321 15.5 4,416 15.3 2.
Morrisons 3,039 10.9 3,102 10.7 2.
Aldi 1,674 6.0 1,956 6.8 16.
Co-op 1,679 6.0 1,676 5.8 –0.
Waitrose 1,464 5.3 1,497 5.2 2.
Lidl 1,225 4.4 1,431 5.0 16.
Iceland^628 2.3^647 2.2 2.
Ocado 338 1.2 366 1.3 8.
Other multiples^451 1.6^460 1.6 1.
Symbols & independents^500 1.8^480 1.7 –4.