Sainsbury’s, Tesco and the discounters were named as the grocery sector’s Christmas winners as the sector had the busiest festive period in four years, according to Kantar.
Sainsbury’s hit its highest market share since December 2019 at 15.8% with sales up 9.3%, while Tesco gained 0.1 percentage points as sales grew 7.5%.
Over the 12 weeks to 25 December, sales of Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference and Tesco’s Finest premium ranges rose by 11.9% compared with 2022 to £790m, accounting for 5.7% of all grocery sales.
Lidl and Aldi continue to be the fastest growing supermarket’s year-on-year and both reached their highest ever market shares for the Christmas period, rising by 0.5 percentage points and 0.2 percentage points, respectively.
Lidl saw sales increase 13.8%, while Aldi also saw high growth of 9.9%.
| Total Till Roll – Consumer Spend | 12 weeks to 25 Dec 2022 | Share | 12 weeks to 24 Dec 2023 | Share | Change YoY |
| £m | % | £m | % | % | |
| Total Grocers | 34102 | 100.0% | 36452 | 100.0% | 6.9% |
| Tesco | 93670 | 27.5% | 10071 | 27.6% | 7.5% |
| Sainsbury’s | 5276 | 15.5% | 5766 | 15.8% | 9.3% |
| Asda | 4789 | 14.0% | 4949 | 13.6% | 3.4% |
| Aldi | 3087 | 9.1% | 3391 | 9.3% | 9.9% |
| Morrisons | 3095 | 9.1% | 3195 | 8.8% | 3.2% |
| Lidl | 2457 | 7.2% | 2794 | 7.7% | 13.8% |
| Co-op | 1908 | 5.6% | 1981 | 5.4% | 3.8% |
| Waitrose | 1596 | 4.7% | 1659 | 4.6% | 4.0% |
| Iceland | 837 | 2.5% | 862 | 2.4% | 2.9% |
| Ocado | 588 | 1.7% | 620 | 1.7% | 5.5% |
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According to the latest figures from Kantar, Brits made 488m trips to the supermarket in the four weeks to 24 December 2023 – 12m more than in 2022.
A record £13.7bn was spent at supermarkets, with an average of £477 across each household throughout the month.
Kantar head of retail and consumer insight Fraser McKevitt described this Christmas as a “whopper” as take-home grocery sales grew in value by 7% and the number of items purchased rose by 2%.
McKevitt said that while “inflation is coming down at the fastest pace we have ever recorded,” he added that almost one third of all spend in the four weeks to Christmas Eve was made on items with a deal or offer.
