Aldi Surpasses Asda as Third Largest Food Retailer in UK Market Snapshot

Aldi overtook Asda as the third biggest food and drinks retailer in the UK for a month in Q1, according to Kantar data seen by The Telegraph.

The discounter’s food and drink sales were higher than Asda’s in the period from 23 February to 23 March.

In the 12 weeks to 23 March, Aldi had a 10.6% share of all food and drinks sales across UK supermarkets, according to the data published by The Telegraph, with Asda claiming a 10.4% share over the same period.

Marketing Week contacted Kantar, which was unable to share the data in question. The food and drink specific figures are distributed privately to supermarkets and not published externally by Kantar.

In a statement shared with Marketing Week, Asda claimed it has a “clear plan to deliver outstanding value” for customers and since relaunching its ‘Rollback’ price initiative at the end of January has reduced prices on a third of its range.

Aldi lags slightly behind Asda in terms of overall grocery sales, which spans categories including toiletries, alcohol, household and healthcare products, as well as food and drink.

In the 12 weeks to 23 March, Asda had a 12.5% market share of the grocery sector, versus Aldi at 11%. This was the first time Aldi had claimed an 11% share, up 0.3 percentage points from last year, with sales up 5.6% – the fastest growth rate for Aldi since January 2024.

Asda’s overall grocery sales declined 5.6% year-on-year during the same period.

“This focus on lowering prices for hard-working families is reflected in the latest and most-widely followed Kantar data, as Asda inflated behind the discounters and clearly maintained its position as the third-largest supermarket in the UK,” an Asda spokesperson told Marketing Week.

“The dataset put to us – which Kantar does not publish – is highly selective and does not include key grocery categories such as alcoholic drinks, pet food, laundry, household products and toiletries.”

Aldi and fellow discounter Lidl have long been disrupting the UK grocery sector. In September 2022, Aldi gatecrashed the traditional ‘Big Four’ supermarkets (Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons) by overtaking Morrisons as the fourth biggest player in grocery retail, a position it has maintained since.

On the other hand, Asda is facing tough times after successive months of year-on-year sales declines. The supermarket has also laid off hundreds of staff, with 475 head office job cuts announced in November and a further 200 revealed earlier this month.

Executive chairman Allan Leighton, who left the business in 2001 having helped it with a turnaround in the 1990s, returned to Asda in November. This time around he identified the business’s value offering as a pillar of the turnaround plan.

On the return of its Rollback initiative in January Asda scrapped its Aldi and Lidl price match scheme, a year after launch. By the end of 2026, the entire Rollback range will then be moved to a new ‘Asda Price.’

“It’s about rolling back to the Asda Price that is loved and known by our core customer base, which is families,” chief customer officer David Hills told Marketing Week in February.

“Over the next couple of years, we’re going to lower our prices across our entire range, which is part of a significant long-term investment to continue to be, and widen our gap as, the cheapest full-service supermarket.”

Hills is set to depart his role at Asda later this year, with the business yet to confirm who will fill the position. Former Aldi marketer Adam Zavalis is second in command in the marketing function, in the role of vice-president of marketing.

Whoever takes on leadership of Asda’s marketing function will clearly need to make value a top priority as the discounters continue to eat into its share.

Lidl remains in fifth place behind Morrisons in terms of market share, with 7.8% versus 8.5% share, respectively. In the 12 weeks to 23 March, the discounter grew its sales 9.1%, considerably more than any other retailer bar Ocado, which grew sales by 11.2%.

Source: Marketing Week