Sainsbury’s has experienced its largest year on year market share gain since July 1997, following a 0.5 percentage point rise in the 12 weeks to 4 August.

According to the latest data from Kantar, Sainsbury’s share now sits at 15.3%, up from 14.8% a year ago, and it was the fastest growing of the traditional supermarkets, with sales increasing by 5.2%.

Meanwhile, Tesco maintained its streak of winning share every month since August 2023 as its hold of the market climbed by 0.6 percentage points to 27.6% and sales jumped 4.9%.

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Discounters Aldi and Lidl both experienced sales growth, as Lidl saw a 7.8% uplift in sales with a share gain of 0.4 percentage points to 8.1%, while Aldi’s market share is now 10%.

At online supermarket Ocado, sales rose by 11.3%, continuing its six-month run as the fastest growing grocer, while share was up 0.1 percentage point to 1.8%.

Share also increased by 0.1 percentage point at Waitrose to 4.5% with sales also up by 4.5%, marking its strongest growth since November 2023.

It comes as Kantar found that take-home sales at the grocers rose by 3.8% in the four weeks to 4 August compared with a year ago, while grocery inflation increased for the first time since March 2023 to 1.8%, up from 1.6% last month.

Kantar head of retail and consumer insight Fraser McKevitt said the rise in inflation was “noticeable following 17 straight months of falling rates,” however he added that “it actually marks a return to the average levels seen in the five years before the start of the cost-of-living crisis“.

On supermarket shelves, 182 product categories were found to be rising in price, while the costs in 89 others fell, with kitchen towels and baked beans now 7% and 5% cheaper respectively than they were last year.

McKevitt added: “With this kind of pricing spread, shoppers will find that the type of product they’re putting in their baskets will really dictate how much they pay.

“They’re continuing to take advantage of the wide range of promotions being offered by the grocers to help keep the price of shopping down. Spending on deals rose by 15%, while sales of products at their usual price saw no increase.”