UK food sales have jumped as consumers splashed out for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, but the latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel show that Tesco and Morrisons struggled to take advantage of this market growth.
Both Tesco and Morrisons saw their market share dip 0.4 points in the 12 weeks to 10 June.
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The problems that Tesco has in the UK have been well-flagged and the retailer is taking corrective measures that it hopes will enable it to regain momentum in the market. However, while this update is the latest in a line of ‘bad news’ for Morrisons (in May the group reported its first like-for-like sales drop since 2005), there has been little indication from the supermarket group that it believes there is a problem with its strategic direction.
One hotly contested area in UK retail has been the use of coupons and vouchers – activity that Morrisons had initially said it would “sit back from” but is now trialling. Sainsbury’s has been able to build its reputation as offering good value through its strong couponing initiative, which provides targetted vouchers at the till, coupled with its brand match price campaign. This has enabled the group to grow organic sales ahead of the market and steal share from its competitors.
