Waitrose claims to have taken £34.7m worth of business from Sainsbury in a year. The upmarket chain says its quality and value message encouraged hordes of Sainsbury shoppers to defect in the 12 months up until March 2000. Waitrose also claims to have taken £13.3m worth of business from Tesco, £9.2m from Safeway, £6.8m from Co-op, £4.1m from Somerfield and £4m from Marks and Spencer over the same period. A Waitrose spokeswoman said: "Consumers want quality more and we are taking the higher ground now, but our price commitment message is also getting across. "Our shopping basket survey is showing that we are 3% cheaper than Sainsbury on our 350 price commitment lines." A Sainsbury spokesman said the figures had been collected before Sir Peter Davis's appointment. He added: "Sir Peter has said he will arrest Sainsbury's decline and this year will be about addressing our market share and building on it." According to Taylor Nelson Sofres Superpanel research, Waitrose showed a 15% increase in year-on-year sales, in the last 13 week period to 12 November, just behind Morrisons which is leading the multiple pack with an 18% jump in sales. Tesco, Safeway and Asda followed with a 10%, 8%, and 6% hike respectively. Sainsbury only saw a 1% sales rise. Latest TNS figures show Tesco racing ahead with a 25.2% market share (up on 23.7% this time last year), with Sainsbury at 18.1% (18.7%), Asda with 16.5% (16.2%) and Safeway at 10.6% (10.2%). Morrisons jumped a respectable 0.7% to 5.5%, while Somerfield dropped 1% to 3.5%. Waitrose stands at 1.7%. One City analyst said Sir Peter Davis needed to address its sales line if its strategy was to work. "Criado-Perez's success at Safeway shows that you can turn sales around." He added that Asda was also achieving less impressive growth. "Compared with this time last year, Asda is slowing down. It will be interesting to see what effect their new supercentres will have." Meanwhile, Safeway continues its reign as Scotland's top retailer with a 21.6% market share. TNS figures for the 12 week period to 12 November give Asda a 19.3% share and Tesco 17.7%. {{NEWS }}

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