The latest report by Kantar Worldpanel shows that sales have fallen back by 2.5% at the Co-op for the 12 weeks to 8 October. The co-operative retailer also witnessed a decrease in its market share by 0.3 percentage points to 6.2%.
Katar Worldpanel, an international company examining shoppers’ behaviour, is part of Kantar Group.
According to the report, UK supermarket sales increased in value by 3.1% during the same period. Inflation remains at 3.2% for like-for-like sales, but Kantar WorldPanel predicts the market will see a slowdown in price rises in the new year. The panel expects the rate to fall below 2% in the first quarter of 2018.
The Co-op is the UK’s sixth-biggest grocer regarding market share with Tesco (27.9%), Sainsbury’s (15.8%), Asda (15.4%), Morrisons (10.3%) and Aldi (6.8%) placed in front.
All big four retailers experienced growth in sales but a decrease in market share with smaller grocery operators attracting new customers.
Employee-owned Waitrose comes seventh, with a 5.3% market share, down by 0.1%. The retailer, which forms part of the John Lewis Partnership, increased its sales by 2.3%.
Online sales account for 6.7% of sales for food retailers with 18% of the population buying groceries online in the past 12 months.
Other trends highlighted in the report include an increase in Christmas product sales, with £69m of chocolate confectionary boxes sold in the last four weeks, a near threefold increase in sales in August, sales of £4m worth mince pies and £1.1m worth Christmas Pudding.
