The UK’s leading supermarkets are soaring ahead of the discounters in bottled water sales this year, in a reversal of 2018’s fortunes.
In a market currently worth a total of £558.4m in take-home sales, Asda was the standout performer with a 12.3% value increase to £75.9m, followed by Tesco’s uplift of 7.3% to £153m [Kantar Worldpanel 52 w/e 4 November 2018]. Sainsbury’s was up 6.9% in value, while Morrisons grew by 5.8%.
Meanwhile, Aldi managed just a 4.7% value gain - markedly below the category average of 6.9% - and Lidl’s sales were down 0.1%.
Kantar Worldpanel analyst Iona White said the top four grocers had “excelled in their performance in the latest year”, having lost out in 2017 to the discounters, which both achieved growth in excess of 20%.
The success of Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons comes in another positive year for own-label water.
Retailer offers shot up 8.1% to £258.9m, narrowing the gap between own label and branded, sales of which increased 5.9% to £299.5m.
Own label is proving particularly popular in plain still water lines, according to Kantar.
Retailers had increased their focus on multipacks of small bottles, in which own label sales shot up 14.8%, said White. Brands were down 11.4% in the same format.
Another area of activity was large single bottles, in which own label was up 13.1% in value, while brands mustered only a 2.3% increase.
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