Kantar: £532m lost from supermarket revenue pool in just three months

By Erin Smith

Published: 06 May, 2015

Kantar Worldpanel released it most recent UK retail figures today showing that "a massive £532m has been taken out of the supermarket revenue pool in just three months" according to Fraser McKevitt, the head of retail and consumer insights at Kantar.

The report shows that revenues only grew 0.2% in the last 12 weeks and prices are falling at a new record rate of 2.1%. "Once again deflation is the main reason behind the sluggish growth," said McKevitt.

"To put it another way: we looked at 75,000 products and the average supermarket shopping basket is now 40p cheaper than it was last year. It doesn't sound like much but 40p per trip is £20 per household over 12 weeks and a massive £532m has been taken out of the supermarket revenue pool in just three months," he said.

Staple foods, like eggs, butter, vegetables and bread are seeing prices fall the fastest, which are often categories dominated by retailers' own label items.

Aldi and Lidl have once again claimed a larger part of the retail market, reaching 5.4% and 3.8% market share, respectively.

However, despite the record-high market share figures and "double digit growth rates that are the envy of the industry, their growth is slowing. This being Aldi's slowest growth since May 2011," said McKevitt.

According to McKevitt part of the slowdown for the discounters is the falling prices of own label staples, "which are of course the discounters specialist subject."

But don't expect to see Aldi and Lidl's growth slow substantially as both are still attracting "substantial numbers of new shoppers" which is the "single best indicator of retail growth," said McKevitt.

Waitrose continues its slow, but steady growth up 1.2% for the month, making this the 81st consecutive month of positive results the retailer has posted dating back to 2009.

Tesco's sales slumped down 1.0% indicating its revival has potentially stalled. According to McKevitt the retailer has "definitely" cut prices, but the rise in volume is not enough to boost growth. Tesco large stores continue to suffer, however Tesco Express' continue "to increase both the number of shoppers and how often people are visiting."

Asda saw revenues fall 2.2% despite a drop in prices, while Morrisons was down 1.1%.

Sainsbury's declined 0.2% which according to McKevitt, "constitutes a relative success compared to their big four peers." Mostly McKevitt attributed diversification out of food items into clothing as helping to defer losses. He also said that the retailer which has over 30% of its business in London, one of the few regions where grocery sales are strongly rising, is another reason Sainsbury's is not declining as quickly as some of its peers.

Printer friendly version