Britain’s Tesco increases dominance with 12-week sales rise

Tesco, Britain’s largest retailer, was the only one of the country’s big four grocers to grow sales in the last 12 weeks, increasing its sector dominance in the run-up to Christmas, data from market researcher NielsenIQ showed on Tuesday.

It said Tesco’s (TSCO.L) sales rose 0.4 per cent year-on-year in the 12 weeks to Nov. 6, increasing its market share by 0.2 percentage points to 26.6 per cent.

In contrast smaller rivals Sainsbury’s (SBRY.L), Asda and Morrisons saw sales fall 3.1 per cent, 2.4 per cent and 4.7 per cent respectively, and all lost market share.

NielsenIQ’s data echoed figures from rival researcher Kantar last week.

Last month, Tesco reported a 16.6 per cent jump in first half profit and raised its full-year earnings forecast despite supply chain disruption.

NielsenIQ said total UK grocery sales fell 2.0 per cent in the four weeks to Nov. 6 versus high comparative numbers ahead of a second national COVID-19 lockdown last year.

Sales were, however, up 4.9 per cent in the same period in 2019.

The researcher noted that in-store visits to supermarkets were up 6.5 per cent compared with last year over the four week period, equal to 28 million more visits.

In contrast, the online share of sales fell to 12.2 per cent, down from 12.6 per cent in the previous four weeks.