Sainsbury's, Britain's second largest supermarket group which has agreed to buy smaller rival Asda, was again the worst performer of the country's big four grocers in the latest 12-week period, industry data showed on Tuesday.
In April Sainsbury's agreed a £7.3 billion (€8.1 billion) cash and shares takeover of Walmart-owned Asda, the No. 3 player - a combination that could overtake Tesco as Britain's biggest supermarket group.
Market Share
Sales at Sainsbury's rose 1.2% in the 12 weeks to Aug. 12, market researcher Kantar Worldpanel said.
While that was Sainsbury's fastest rate of growth since January, it lagged Asda's growth of 2.6%, growth of 2.7% at No. 4 Morrisons and 1.8% at Tesco.
Morrisons was alone among the big four in maintaining its market share, the other three continue to lose ground to German-owned discounters Aldi and Lidl, which are opening new stores aggressively.
Aldi and Lidl's sales rose 12.6% and 8.6% respectively.
Sales at the Co-operative rose 7.8%, its fastest rate of growth in nearly seven years.
Total grocery market growth was 3.5%, while grocery inflation for the 12 week period was 1.9%, Kantar Worldpanel said.
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