Overview
- Worldpanel data for the 12 weeks to May 17 showed Lidl held an 8.6% market share, up from 8.1% a year earlier, while Morrisons fell to 8.3%.
- Lidl's sales rose about 8.8% year‑on‑year in the period compared with roughly 1.3% growth at Morrisons, reflecting a widening performance gap between the two chains.
- Lidl has published a 'wish list' of hundreds of potential new sites including affluent London postcodes and reported a pre-tax profit of £157m with revenue of about £11.7bn in the year to February.
- Morrisons remains constrained by legacy debt from its 2021 private‑equity takeover, reported at roughly £3.1bn, and plans to close about 100 Morrisons Daily convenience stores as it seeks to cut costs.
- Grocery price inflation eased to about 3.1% in the same Worldpanel period while promotions accounted for around 30.3% of sales and Ocado recorded the fastest growth at about 10% year‑on‑year.