Sainsbury’s continued to grow its share of the grocery market in the latest quarter as other big supermarkets struggled, according to the latest data from Kantar Worldpanel.

The supermarket achieved a market share of 16.9% in the 12 weeks to 25 November, compared to 16.7% a year ago. Of the big five supermarkets, Waitrose is the only other company to have grown its share year-on-year, from 4.4% to 4.5%.

Sainsbury’s has also managed to improve its position on a month ago. Its share of 16.9% compares to 16.8% for the 12 weeks to the end of October.

“Sainsbury’s is once again the top performer of the big four and has beaten the market with year-on-year growth of 4.7%,” said Edward Garner, director at Kantar Worldpanel.

Tesco saw its market share slip from 31% last year to 30.7% in the latest period. However, it has made progress in the latest period – Kantar reported last month that its share was 30.5%.

Morrisons is the weakest of the leading supermarkets. “Share losses are particularly acute for Morrisons which has experienced a sales decline of 1.1%, bringing its share down from 12.3% a year ago to 11.7% now,” said Garner.

The discounters, and in particular Aldi, continued to grow strongly in the quarter. “The advance of Aldi continues unabated and its 27.3% growth is being built on a solid foundation with 10% more shoppers than a year ago and 17% growth in the value of each shopping basket,” added Garner.

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