Shoppers returning to non-budget supermarkets

Published on Tuesday 15 September 2009 21:44

SHOPPERS appear to be turning back to traditional supermarkets rather than budget outlets, according to industry figures published yesterday.

TNS Worldpanel said the "recession panic is ebbing away" but warned that not all sectors of the high street will instantly return to pre-recession growth.

Growth for discount chains Aldi and Lidl continued to fall back from 2008 levels with Aldi growing ahead of the market at 8 per cent and Lidl just keeping pace with the market growth of 5.2 per cent.

Slower growth at the discount end of the scale came in contrast to Waitrose – the upmarket chain owned by department store group John Lewis – which was the top performer with a growth rate of 11.2 per cent, the highest since August 2006.

Figures for the 12 weeks to 6 September showed that Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons all continued to grow their market share, while Tesco's slice of the supermarket pie fell back to 30.9 per cent, compared with 31.1 per cent in the same period last year.

TNS said it was too early to judge the effect of Tesco's Clubcard two initiative, which offers double points on the chain's loyalty card.

The company said: "Food remains a manageable proportion of most household budgets by historical standards and, it could be argued, the grocery sector suffered from an overreaction at the end of 2008 when Aldi posted year-on-year sales growth of 26 per cent and Waitrose saw a sales decline."

Waitrose has benefited from the extra floor space accrued through its acquisition of former Somerfield stores sold off by the Co-operative under guidance from regulators.

Grocery price inflation decreased further since last month to stand at 4.3 per cent, marking the sixth successive monthly drop in TNS's series of reports.

In August, the figure had stood at 5.1 per cent. TNS measures inflation using a "basket" containing more than 75,000 identical products compared year-on-year in the proportions purchased by UK shoppers.