Asda wins grocery battle amid heatwave and World Cup

An unexpected winner emerged on Tuesday in the battle of the Big Four supermarkets, buoyed by the heatwave and the World Cup.

Asda’s sales jumped 3.7% — its strongest growth in more than five years — beating rivals for the first time since December 2014, according to research firm Kantar. There was a rise in shoppers buying Asda’s own-label products — which already make up almost half of its sales.

The same could not be said about bedfellow Sainsbury’s, which made a £15 billion swoop for Asda in April. The grocery giant was the laggard, with sales up only 0.8% for the 12 weeks to July 15. Its market share fell 0.4% to 15.6% as it struggled to stop shoppers switching to rivals.

Sales at Morrisons grew 2.9% and those at Tesco rose 2.3%. Tesco is rumoured to be launching a discount chain, Jack’s, to fight Aldi and Lidl. Its market share dropped 0.3% to 27.6%.

German discounter Aldi had the highest sales growth in the wider market, with Lidl in second place. The two chains are on the verge of hitting a combined market share of 13% for the first time, as they put pressure on the likes of Morrisons, the fourth-biggest supermarket, with 10.5% of the market.

Giles Hurley, Aldi’s UK chief executive, said: “A notable uplift in beer and sparkling wine sales undoubtedly contributed to our becoming the UK’s fastest-growing supermarket as fans toasted the team’s success.”

Plenty of alcohol was guzzled in the week that England, led by captain Harry Kane (pictured), played Colombia and Sweden in the World Cup, with a whopping £287 million spent on drinks. That was a record outside Christmas and Easter.

“Over the past month, football-frenzied customers visited supermarkets an extra 13 million times as they hurried to stock up on World Cup-viewing essentials,” said Kantar’s Fraser McKevitt.

Sun cream and painkillers were also in demand.