Marks & Spencer has been revealed as the UK’s fastest-growing grocer, ahead of both its online joint partner Ocado and Lidl.
M&S’s grocery sales were up 12.4% year on year in the 12 months to 29 December, based on Kantar data.
Kantar’s regular grocery market update usually excludes M&S, as the retailer’s numbers feature in a separate set of data.
However, M&S’s figure for September – seen by The Telegraph – points to the dramatic inroads it has been making behind the scenes.
Lidl had been the fastest-growing bricks-and-mortar supermarket for over a year in Kantar’s widely published data. Its sales were up 8.8% year on year in the 12 weeks to 29 September.
Ocado was shown as the fastest-growing outright, with its sales up 10% in the same period.
As well as showing it to be ahead of those, M&S’s figure reveals the gulf between it and Waitrose – traditionally seen as its closest rival – whose sales were up 3.6% in Kantar’s latest data.
M&S is beating rivals in value and volume terms, the Telegraph reports.
M&S’s growth has been attributed to its store rotation programme, which has seen it open bigger Foodhalls, as well as to its investment in upgrading the quality of thousands of products.
Read more: How big can M&S get in food – and how will it get there?
The retailer is due to announce its half-year results in November.
Kantar’s latest data also shows Tesco as the fastest-growing of the traditional big four, with its sales up 5.2%. The supermarket reached its largest market share since December 2017, at 28.0%, up from 27.4% one year ago.
Sainsbury’s sales increased by 5.1%, with its market share climbing 0.4 percentage points to 15.2%.
Meanwhile, Asda continued to endure a calamitous period, with its sales down 5.1% year on year, leaving its market share at 12.6%, down from 13.7%.
Morrisons sales were up 2.8% year on year, with its market share flat at 8.6%.
Aldi continued to grow at a much slower rate than Lidl. Aldi’s sales were 1.8%. Its market share was down one percentage point to 9.8%, while Lidl’s share grew from 7.6% to 8.1%.
Total growth across the market was 2.9% year on year.
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