Tesco was this week eagerly telling the City how its market share had grown "significantly" in the past year. In particular, its executives flagged up the last quarter of its financial year, saying it was the multiple's best for five years in terms of sales growth. That 12-week period ended on February 23 ­ as did last month's Tradetrak figures. Our figures showed Tesco enjoyed a 0.3% rise in market share year on year for the period ending February 23. Fast forward to this month's figures and there is more good news for the multiple. Its share of the market ­ as defined here by ACNielsen ­ rose by 0.4% year on year. Better still, the chain enjoyed its first positive quarter on quarter comparison since we launched Tradetrak at the beginning of the year. That would suggest Tesco has recovered from what was, by its standards, a poor performance at Christmas. Despite this positive sign, concerns remain that Tesco's rate of growth is slower than in recent years in the face of a stronger performance from a rejuvenated Sainsbury. The latter was due to issue a trading statement the day after The Grocer went to press. However, the figures we publish here show that Sainsbury put in another robust performance in the latest period under review ­ for the 12 weeks to March 23. In particular, our figures would suggest that the strong trading it enjoyed at Christmas has continued ­ with its market share rising to 16.8% as a result. Many pundits this week were questioning whether this growth was coming at the expense of Tesco. But the message from Tesco's executives was clear: if Sainsbury was growing sales and market share it was not coming at their expense. Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy said: "If other retailers are doing better [than us] then good for them. But you can see from our figures we are on top form." And he told the City that Tesco had increased its share of the UK food market ­ as measured by IGD ­ to 16.7%. {{NEWS }}

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