Regular readers of this blog will be aware that I have, since 1997, been using Kantar data to look at the changing grocery market shares in Great Britain.  Taking July data each year this series now extends almost a quarter of century.  I have reflected on this series before both generally and specifically last year in the eye of the pandemic and lockdown.

The data for this July have now been released and as ever I encourage you to go to the original and have a play around with their tools and also check out their recent commentary.

In my post of last year, I focused on a range of (for me) interesting points.   In the heart of the pandemic the grocery market expanded, local and independent businesses grow market share, online increased considerably (as did frozen food) but the leading retailers all lost market share.  Asda and Aldi seemed to be particularly adversely affected, as well as Waitrose.

The table shows the market share data for 2019, 2020 and 2021.  The grocery market is no longer as buoyant as before as lockdowns and restrictions on a range of activities and sectors recede.  Hospitality opening up for example has affected grocery sales and online figures.  The table shows that Tesco and Sainsbury have rebounded to previous market share levels, but that Asda and Morrisons remain at their lower level (something that the new owners of Asda and possible new owners of Morrisons will be interested in).  Aldi has also recovered growth (as has Waitrose).  Conversely the co-operatives and the symbols/independents seem to be settling back, though remaining above the 2019 figures.

In short, the pattern pre-pandemic seems to be restabilising itself.

This is also shown in the long run graph below, focusing on market share since 1997 for the leading three grocery retailers and the discounters.  The discounter rise has resumed but Asda are back where they started in 1997. 

The CR3 data shows the market share of the top 3 in the grocery market in Great Britain.  Last year it had reduced rapidly to 55.7%; close to where it was in 1997.  This however has altered this year as CR3 has increased to 56.3%.  This is the first increase in this measure for some years; steady decline had been the trend, showing the impact of the discounters. This year’s level is still well below the CR3 measure 2007 peak. It is also below 2019 (57.4%), re-establishing the rate of decline seen pre-pandemic.