Proactive Investors - Marks & Spencer sales moved higher again as its growing grip on the upmarket section of the retail grocery market was confirmed again with more lacklustre numbers from key rival Waitrose.
Which? readers yesterday voted M&S the UK’s most popular supermarket for a third year running , with the chain citing gains from Waitrose as one of the reasons for its recent popularity.
Waitrose sales were up 3.8% over the past year compared to 5.1% growth across the wider industry in the same period, including M&S, data from market researcher Kantar showed.
Over Christmas, M&S chief Stuart Machin boasted about record sales in its food stores sparking a recent round of price cuts from Waitrose with a promise of more to follow from the John Lewis-owned chain.
Shares in M&S were up 1% today to 241.4p with Sainsbury’s also higher though Tesco (LON:TSCO) was down despite a decent showing in the Kantar rankings.
J Sainsbury PLC (LON:SBRY) grew fastest among the listed group, increasing its share of the market by 0.4 percentage points to 15.6% with a 7.6% increase in sales.
Tesco PLC grew 6.2% and its market share swelled 0.3 to 27.6%.
February were boosted by alcohol volumes rebounding 18% on the previous month after the end of dry January.
Shoppers topped up their trolleys with 28% more wine and 16% more beer and lager.