Steve Dresser’s Post

💥💥 The race for Christmas has started! 🎄🎄 With just 7 weeks until the peak shopping day, Rhian Bartlett, CCO at Sainsbury's announced this morning that the Aldi UK price match scheme will extend to their #Convenience estate. Signalling the beginning of a concerted pre-Xmas push towards establishing credible value cues in the #UKGrocery sector. The ambition no doubt being to drive consumers into re-appraising and perhaps re-entering Sainsbury's stores ahead of Christmas... This approach is interesting for the following reasons: 1 - Convenience formats are more expensive to run, therefore, their is normally a premium paid for shopping in the smaller stores. 2 - The Sainsbury's Local stores may be better located to compete against the #discounters and Aldi - particularly in more urban locations and #highstreets 3 - Realistically, how many lines are on sale in a Convenience store that are in the price match scheme? Giving this consideration should Tesco and Co-op be worried by this move, eroding the #consumer value proposition? Could Tesco follow suit? Could this signal the first decline in share for Aldi UK as Sainsbury's pick up new shoppers? Perhaps a fresh punch on the nose for Asda, Morrisons and Waitrose & Partners with their much smaller Convenience estates? Paul Stainton - what do you think? Will Aldi be quaking? Richard Lim - a good step forward for Sainsbury's, more share gains before Xmas maybe? Phil Mc Mahon - is there an unseen angle here?

Aldi holds its crown as the UK's cheapest supermarket! 🏆 According to Which?, a basket of 65 items at Aldi cost £102.68 in September. This is £27.69 cheaper than Waitrose, which was found to be the most expensive at £130.37. Not far behind, rival discounter Lidl priced the same basket at £103.86—just £1.18 more than Aldi. Asda followed suit at £112.19. It's fascinating to see how these price comparisons offer us a clear view of where we can stretch our pounds further. When it comes to loyalty schemes, Tesco Clubcard users enjoyed the lowest cost of £112.96, slightly edging out Sainsbury's with Nectar savings at £113.79. Reflecting on these findings, Aldi's UK managing director of buying, Julie Ashfield, noted that with Christmas approaching, these savings are vital for consumers. #Savings #SupermarketWars #UKGroceries

Simple. Clear. (almost) predictable. This is typical Tesco; highlighting their low prices and true value. Stark comparison to what we see elsewhere in other retailers, struggling for sales so just pushing more and more messages out there...... Super clear for customers. They are in no doubt as they enters the store; what is being conveyed to them. #retail #value #tesco

🛒British retailers Sainsbury's, Tesco, Lidl GB and Aldi UK win share, according to Worldpanel's #GroceryMarketShare update. Sainsbury’s increased sales by 8.1% to take 15.7% of the market, while the UK’s largest retailer Tesco grew by 6.3% and now has a share of 27.6%. 👉Lidl was the fastest-growing grocer in Britain for the fifth month in a row and the only retailer to see double-digit growth in the latest 12 weeks. 👉Aldi also grew ahead of the market, with sales up by 7.2%, and increased its share to 9.3%. Read our article on the link below to find out what is happening in the grocery market in the #UK 👉https://lnkd.in/e79-i4ET

Surely this proves that price isn't everything?! Tesco were voted Britain’s Favourite Supermarket for the 10th year in NIQ’s latest annual Homescan survey. They hold the top spot across 6 of the 10 attributes below, but they aren't in the top 2 for price. Aldi UK and Lidl GB are gaining share, but the grocers that are winning (Tesco and Sainsbury's) are the ones that aren't trying to compete on price alone (like Asda seemingly are). What do you think? Is there more to retail competitiveness than price? #fmcg #grocery #categorymanagment Image from The Grocer (https://lnkd.in/eu5YGfVC)

Retail is detail... How did the grocery and convenience sector fare from a #business perspective during its traditional busy period? We apparently made around 488m trips to the supermarket during the 4 weeks to December 24th, the largest number since pre pandemic times. Around £13.7bn rang through the tills of grocery retailers in the same period, with Lidl claiming to have grown their market share by the most, though this is likely due only to new store openings. Sainsbury's grew at around 16% in the final quarter of 2023 alongside strong performances from Tesco, local convenience store operators, and the community and urban style brands. The rise in sales across the board (7%) is fairly comparable to the grocery price inflation number (6.7%) down from (9.1%) so in real terms volume of sales only actually increased by around 2%. Parsnip sales were up 12%, Sprouts 8%, and Potatoes 6%, as consumers went 'all out' traditional. Having said that, Mince Pies were down 4% and Xmas Pudding 7%, and the average household spend was around £477 on groceries and convenience (food, drink, and associated items) during the Christmas period, up from £433 for Xmas 2022. Aldi said yesterday that their total sales for the period came in at £1.5bn, this again is largely due to new store openings so the actual 'like for like' sales are more likely down when you disrobe the headline numbers. The real winners look to be Tesco, Lidl, and Sainsbury's including thier in-store #coffeeshops concession partner Starbucks. Richard Payne #conveniencestores #retail #businesssales #businessadvisory #businessowners

'Whatever you do, don't lose the Grocer 33'. This was the message we had every single week that I was at Asda, as a Buyer it was even more important. Asda have won the G33 for price every single year since 1997, but no more & I don't think they will ever get it back. When they lost it wasn't even close, Tesco won 20 weeks & Asda 13, Sainsburys won 10. Last year Asda won 32, JS 11 & Morrisons 1, Tesco didn't win any. So what has changed? The G33 now includes loyalty card prices, it's not just headline price. With 82% of Tesco's transactions using Club Card it makes sense, it does expose how off on price Asda really are. Asda have not been price leaders for over a decade despite winning the G33 for price. The G33 has Aldi & Lidl as guest retailers, but every single time they take part they win. This is the reality that Asda have hidden behind for too long & Customers have recognised it & that is one of the reasons why they are shopping elsewhere. Loyalty cards for Customers are part of their everyday, they don't leave home without them, especially when they are an app on their phone. Is Asda's loyalty card required to get the best prices? No, it's not. You collect cash using the Asda Rewards App, you then have to create a voucher that you can use when you have enough money on the pot. In other words, it's not easy! Loyalty cards must be easy to use to ensure they are used all the time, the harder they are the less valid they are. This is why Club Card, then Nectar then almost all the others have offers that are 'members only', in other words, only available to loyalty card holders but easy to access. Asda have given up price with a whimper, not a fight, after owning that award for 27 years. The changing of the guard happened a long time ago but this time Asda have to face the fact, they are no where near a price leader. Maybe they don't want to be? If that is the case, then what do they want to stand for? #theretailmind #GrocerGoldAwards #Priceleader #groceryretail

🛒 This month, Morrisons became the latest #retailer to launch a price match scheme with Aldi UK and Lidl GB in the UK, after Asda made the move in January. More generally, we saw promotions accelerate this month after a post-Christmas slowdown. Consumers’ spending on offers increased by 4% in February, worth £586 million more than the same month in 2023.   📈 Sainsbury's and Iceland’s efforts paid off in particular, and they were the only retailers to attract more shoppers through their doors. The battle between supermarkets’ own-label lines and brands also remains fierce. Own-label nipped ahead this month, growing sales by 5.5% versus branded products at 5.3%. Want to know more? Access our latest publication here https://lnkd.in/gPU5ggg8 🎧 Listen to our experts on Spotify! https://lnkd.in/ghHHiFcT

🛒 This month, Morrisons became the latest #retailer to launch a price match scheme with Aldi UK and Lidl GB in the UK, after Asda made the move in January. More generally, we saw promotions accelerate this month after a post-Christmas slowdown. Consumers’ spending on offers increased by 4% in February, worth £586 million more than the same month in 2023.   📈 Sainsbury's and Iceland’s efforts paid off in particular, and they were the only retailers to attract more shoppers through their doors. The battle between supermarkets’ own-label lines and brands also remains fierce. Own-label nipped ahead this month, growing sales by 5.5% versus branded products at 5.3%. Want to know more? Access our latest publication here https://lnkd.in/esxnCfB4 🎧 Listen to our experts on Spotify! https://lnkd.in/ep-CQ9YN