Big four UK grocers losing market share

London - Britain's big four grocers - Tesco, WalMart's Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons - all lost market share over the last three months to discounters Aldi and Lidl, industry data showed on Tuesday.

The data from market researcher Kantar Worldpanel showed the UK grocery market continuing to polarise, with the big four being squeezed between the discounters and upmarket players such as Waitrose.

Although Britain's economy is recovering from a long and deep recession, household budgets have remained under pressure due to subdued wages growth, with many shoppers looking to save money while also splashing out on the occasional treat.

Kantar said Aldi's sales leapt 35.3% year-on-year in the 12 weeks to March 30 - its highest ever growth rate, boosting the discounter to a record market share of 4.6%. Lidl's sales rose 17.2% taking its share to 3.4%.

Sales declines at the big four were accentuated by the later timing of Easter this year, included in the 2013 period but not in this data. Asda proved the most resilient with a sales fall of 0.5%, while Morrisons, which issued a profit warning last month, was the worst performer with a decline of 3.8%.

Tesco's sales fell 3.0%, while sales at Sainsbury's declined 1.7%.

Waitrose's sales rose 4.5%, allowing it to hold on to its record 5.0% market share. Overall grocery market growth slowed to 0.6%. Kantar estimates that Easter accounts for market growth of 0.9%.

It said grocery inflation was 1.8% for the 12 week period - the lowest level since July 2010.