Asda sales dropped -0.9% over the last 12 weeks, according to new data from NIQ, which has seen its market share drop from 13.3% last year to 12.6%.
The latest data, which covers the three months ending 20 April, will come as a blow for Asda, which in the last couple of months has been identified as the laggard in the supermarket sector by both NIQ and Kantar.
However, this is the first time the percentage sales change for Asda has been negative.
Elsewhere, online supermarket Ocado’s market share edged up 0.1 percentage points to 1.7%. It follows a winning streak for the online grocer, which last month was again named fastest-growing supermarket.
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Lidl experienced a sales increase of 9.5%, upping its market share to 8.2% from 7.8%. M&S also fared well, with figures showing a rise of 9.3%, boosting its market share from 3.5% to 3.6%.
Aldi’s results were less strong, as its sales growth slowed to 1.3%, causing its market share to fall from 10.8% to 10.4%.
NIQ UK head of retailer and business insight Mike Watkins said: “The early Easter brought forward some spend to March so weekly growths in April were impacted. This in turn exaggerated some of the slowdown in growth which we were already seeing.
“However, the growth week ending 20 April at the major supermarkets was +2.6% and may be indicative of the level of growth now that inflation is in low single digits.
“We can also expect the gap in growth between private label and brands to close further as shopper spend starts to normalise after 18 months of inflation.”
