Aldi and Lidl close in on '˜big four' with solid Christmas

Two-thirds of households shopped at one of the discounters over the 12 weeks to December 30, according to Kantar Worldpanel, giving them a combined 12.8% slice of the market.

This was the highest ever Christmas market share for the retailers, with Aldi’s sales up 10.4% and Lidl up 9.4%.

Asda came out top of the big four grocers with a 0.7% rise, while Sainsbury’s was the weakest with a 0.4% decline.

Tesco sales were 0.6% higher and Morrisons notched up 0.1% growth.

Co-op was the only retailer to beat its 2017 growth rate. It also increased its market share for the seventh period in a row, a trend which is set to continue as it plans 100 store openings this year.

Apart from Sainsbury’s, Waitrose was the only other retailer to see a drop in sales, with a decline of 1.7%.

Overall, supermarkets rang up another record Christmas, new data has shown, despite a slowdown in sector growth.

Shoppers spent a record £29.3 billion on groceries in the 12 weeks to December 30, which was £450 million more than this time last year.

But growth was slower as a lower level of inflation took its toll. The sector grew at 1.6%, its slowest rate since March 2017.

Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel, said the overall spend was tempered by lower inflation of 1.3%.

He said: “This slower inflation rate helped shoppers to manage their festive budgets, with 60% of customers looking to make savvier decisions to make their money go further over the holidays.”

New figures from Nielsen showed a similar trend, with overall grocery sales up 1.8% in the last four weeks, compared with 3.7% last year.