News Release
Price cuts and promotions fail to stop falling sales at UK’s
leading supermarkets – Nielsen
London, Fri 6 June 2014 – The heavy use of price cuts and product promotions is failing to encourage
consumers to buy and spend more at the UK’s leading supermarkets, according to the latest data
from global information and insights company Nielsen.
During the four weeks ending 24 May 2014, consumers spent -0.9%* less money at the UK’s leading
supermarkets than the same period a year ago, buying -2.1%* less volume.
“Supermarkets are trying hard to stimulate sales – 35% of sales are on items with price cuts or
special promotions – but it’s still not enough to override consumers’ money-saving mindset,” says
Nielsen’s UK head of retailer and business insight Mike Watkins.
“The situation is compounded by record low levels of shop price inflation and price cuts in staple
categories such as milk, bread and produce, which aren’t generating a large enough uplift in volumes
to grow revenue.”
Soft drinks category performing well
Sales growths are also not being helped by the unpredictable weather. In the week leading up to the
Bank Holiday of 26 May there was only a small uplift in sales (+0.8%*). However, over the four-week
reporting period, Soft Drinks’ sustained growth meant it was the best performing category (+3.2%) –
helped by a short burst of sunshine and hot weather in the middle of the month.
Watkins comments: “The industry will certainly have its hopes heavily pinned on a successful World
Cup for England and a decent summer to kick-start sales.”
With the discounters and high street value retailers continuing to steal market share, the weakest
underlying growths remain in Packaged Grocery (-3.7% during the 12 weeks ending 24 May).
Aldi and Lidl continue to outperform the market
In the 12 weeks to 24 May, Aldi and Lidl continued to outperform the market with sales increases of
33% and 22%, respectively. Along with Waitrose and M&S, they are still gaining market share, with
the four collectively adding 2.3% market share over the 12-week reporting period.
Among the “big four” Asda now has the strongest growth (1.7%) and has steadily grown sales ahead
of the other three since October 2013. Sainsbury is consistently attracting new shoppers – over half
a million in the four week period – and is outperforming Tesco and Morrisons in sales growth.
In an effort to claw back market share, Morrisons invested the most in Press and TV advertising in
the four week period (£6.7m)¹ to support its ‘I’M Cheaper’ campaign. This is a +39% spend increase
compared to the same period last year – over twice the increase (+17%) for supermarkets as a
whole, who spent £30m in total.
“It’s now common practice for consumers to shop at both a leading supermarket and an Aldi or Lidl,
leading to some 40% of households now visiting these discounters every month,” concludes
Watkins. “With expanded food and drink ranges, and significant increases in advertising spend, we
expect Aldi and Lidl’s momentum to continue through the summer with their quality and low price
messaging still resonating well with shoppers.”
Table: 12-Weekly % share of grocery market spend by retailer and value sales % change
% share, 12 weeks to % share, 12 weeks to % sales change vs. same
24 May 2014
25 May 2013
12 weeks year ago
TESCO
28.2%
29.5%
-3.3%
ASDA
16.4%
16.4%
1.7%
SAINSBURY
16.4%
16.6%
-0.4%
MORRISONS
10.9%
11.6%
-5.0%
CO-OPERATIVE
5.6%
5.7%
-0.1%
ALDI
5.2%
3.9%
32.6%
WAITROSE
5.0%
4.8%
7.2%
LIDL
4.0%
3.3%
22.5%
MARKS AND SPENCER
3.1%
3.0%
6.1%
ICELAND
2.1%
2.1%
2.1%
The figures in the table are based on 12 weeks sales through to 24 May 2014 compared with the same 12 week period ending in 2013
Source: Nielsen Total Till, Nielsen Homescan
- ENDS Notes:
All figures are from Nielsen Homescan Total Till unless otherwise stated
*Source: Nielsen Scantrack Grocery Multiples
¹Source: Nielsen Ad Dynamix
About Nielsen Homescan Total Till
The Nielsen continuous 14,500 GB household panel is geo-demographically balanced and designed
to measure household purchasing through a wide range of channels. It includes all food and drink
and non-food spend (e.g. household, personal care, clothing, electrical, cards and stationery, toys,
music, general merchandise, etc.) It represents the total amount paid (after all coupons and
vouchers), found on the till receipt.
About Nielsen Scantrack
The Nielsen scanning service that measures total store sales every week by SKU for 15,000 shops
across all food and drink trade channels in GB. This uses the actual EPOS data from retailers, thus,
Scantrack is the most robust and reliable measure of FMCG sales and is integrated with Homescan
for the key indicators of retailer and category performance. The total market measured is £140bn
per annum. ‘Grocery Multiples’ is a defined sub-set of the major supermarkets that also includes all
food sales from Marks and Spencer (but excludes Aldi and Lidl). The Grocery Multiples account for
over £117bn of all GB food, drink and supermarket general merchandise sales.
About Nielsen
Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and measurement company with leading
market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement,
online intelligence and mobile measurement. Nielsen has a presence in approximately 100 countries,
with headquarters in New York, USA and Diemen, the Netherlands. For more information, visit
www.nielsen.com.
More information
Alex Burmaster
Meteor Public Relations
Tel: 020 3544 3570
Mob: 0780 313 1144
[email protected]
Neil Beston
PR Director, UK & Europe
Nielsen
Tel: 020 3103 3959
Mob: 07770 644136
[email protected]