Tesco and Sainsbury’s have led the UK’s grocery growth this festive season, securing the biggest market share gains among UK supermarkets over the Christmas period, according to the latest data from Kantar.

Figures from Kantar’s new Till Roll report showed that in the 12 weeks to 29 December, the UK’s largest retailer Tesco recorded a sales surge of 5%, boosted by growth across its convenience, superstore and online channels.

The performance saw the supermarket giant experience the greatest market share gain of any supermarket during the period, rising 0.8 percentage points to 28.5%.

Sainsbury’s also enjoyed its best December performance since 2019, outpacing market with sales growth of 3.5%. It led to the grocer hitting 16% market share, its highest figure in four years.

Discounters Lidl and Aldi also achieved their highest ever market shares during the period, standing at at 7.3% and 10.0% respectively.

Lidl’s spending through its tills increased by 6.6%, which represented the highest footfall growth of any retailer, while Aldi’s sales rose 2.9%, as it attracted an additional 315,000 customers to its stores.

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Kantar head of retail and consumer insight Fraser McKevitt said: “More people chose to do some of their Christmas grocery shopping online this year with 5.6 million households opting for delivery or click and collect services on at least one occasion.

“Online spending for the month reached a record £1.6 billion.  This saw Ocado boost its sales by 9.6% over the 12 weeks, taking its overall share to 1.8%.”

Morrisons’ sales increased 0.4% while its market share stood at 8.6%, and Waitrose’s share remained 4.6%, despite sales at the upmarket grocer increasing by 2.1%.

Asda and convenience retailer Co-op now both have 12.5% and 5.3% market share respectively, down from 13.5% and 5.4% in the same period in 2023.

Kevitt added: “It was a solid Christmas at the supermarkets with sales surpassing £13 billion during the four weeks of December for the first time ever, showing people were clearly in the mood to celebrate and spend. However, despite the festive cheer, grocery price inflation has ticked up to 3.7%, its highest level since March 2024.

“In contrast to reports of disappointing footfall across the rest of the high street, it was a very different story in the world of grocery.  The average household made nearly 17 separate shopping trips this December, delivering the busiest month for the retailers since the pre-lockdown rush in March 2020.

“As anticipated, Monday 23 December was the most popular shopping day of the year, with sales a whopping 30% higher than any other day during 2024.”