Research just released by TNS Worldpanel, the market information group, suggests reports that the key Christmas trading period in 2006 was a poor one were premature, with sales for the last 12 weeks of the year in fact up by 5% over the same period last year.
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“The latest TNS Worldpanel grocery market share figures published today for the 12 weeks ending 31 December 2006, covering the Christmas shopping period, show that fears of a poor Christmas were unfounded as far as Grocery retailers were concerned,” said TNS Worldpanel director of research Edward Garner.
Market leader Tesco showed the biggest gain in absolute terms with a one point share increase to 31.4%, according to the TNS data. However, TNS suggested that the Tesco share had now plateaued, having held around that level for the last nine data releases. This reflected the intensity of competition from other retailers, the researcher said.
Sainsbury’s, which traditionally trades strongly at Christmas, narrowed the gap with Asda to 0.2%, TNS said, but Asda also saw a healthy sales increase of 5%, in line with the market.
TNS reported that growth at Morrisons had been a little slower at 4% but pointed out that this was the retailer’s eighth successive period of growth.
As stores which have been sold are removed from annual comparisons, Somerfield saw its share fall from 4.1% to 3.9%. Meanwhile, Waitrose’s share for this period rose to a record 3.9%.
