Lidl, Marks & Spencer The Big UK Christmas Winners: NIQ

NIQ said M&S’s food sales on a value basis rose 12.1% in the 12 weeks to December 30 year-on-year, with its share of the UK grocery market rising 0.1 percentage point to 3.8%.

Almost 29% of households shopped at M&S in December, up from 27% in the same period last year, equating to 500,000 new shoppers, it said.

M&S’s food shopper numbers always jump at Christmas. Its challenge is to retain them for the rest of the year.

NIQ said Lidl GB’s sales over the 12 week period rose 15.3%, while fellow discounter Aldi UK’s sales were up 11.4%, increasing their combined market share to 20.1%.

Echoing data from rival market researcher Kantar last week, NIQ said market leader Tesco and No. 2 Sainsbury’s also performed robustly with sales up 7.4% and 8.7% respectively, but privately owned Asda and Morrisons were laggards with growth of 3.2%. Kantar’s monthly report does not include M&S.

ESM