Aldi overtakes Waitrose to become Britain's sixth largest supermarket

By Erin Smith

Published: 08 April, 2015

Aldi has overtaken Waitrose to become the sixth largest supermarket in Britainwith 5.3% of the market, according to Kantar Worldpanel's retail figures released today.

Aldi has overtaken Waitrose to become the sixth largest supermarket in Britain with 5.3% of the market, according to Kantar Worldpanel's retail figures released today.

The figures cover the 12 weeks ending 29 March 2015.

"It had to happen and this is the month that Aldi finally moved up the share ladder and become Britain sixth biggest supermarket," said Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar.

According to McKevitt the growth in market share was driven by more than half a million new shoppers visiting the retailer as well as an increase in the average Aldi basket spend. He said: "Just under half their growth comes from new shoppers, greatly helped by the ambitious store opening programme. The remaining slightly more than half of Aldi's growth is from existing shoppers moving even more of their spend to the retailer. The average Aldi basket is now £21, up 7% compared to last year- impressive in a time of falling prices."

Like-for-like grocery prices fell another 2% for the 19^th consecutive month, which is a new record low according to Kantar. The on-going deflation only further solidifies that rate of growth that retailers once saw is now a thing of the past and that market share will be the way forward for retailers.

McKevitt said: "Continued price deflation means there is simply no way that the supermarket sector can return to the average run rate of 4% growth that was the norm before 2014. With minimal industry growth the focus has to turn to the battle for market share."

Despite the impressive growth of Aldi, McKevitt cautioned that growth for the discounters is slowing and shoppers at Aldi tend to be less loyal than those that shop at the big four retailers.

"Despite their success, it is worth remembering people tend to shop very differently in Aldi. Only 11% of their shoppers are what you might call loyal. That is only 11% of their shoppers spend more than half their grocery spend in the retailer. The corresponding number for Tesco is 37% and shows the discounters still have a way to go to truly match the big retailers," said McKevitt.

Although Waitrose has been surpassed by Aldi, the retailer continues to grow market share. McKevitt said: "It is all rather harsh on Waitrose that Aldi have overtaken them because the upmarket grocer have also gained market share, up to 5.1% on the back of 2.9% growth. Waitrose have now been continuously growing since March 2009."

Sainsbury's grew 0.2%, which although modest was a return to growth for the retailer. Tesco grew 0.3%.

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