Troubling times for retailers to the squeezed middle April 29, 2012 SPARE a thought for the squeezed middle. No, not the ordinary family as defined by Ed Miliband, but the places they shop and the things they buy. The mid-market consumer firm is finding the going very tough indeed. There has been much written about Tesco’s troubles in recent months, punctuated by a series of ignominious [...]
Tesco continues to shed market share as Asda hits record high March 27, 2012 TESCO has continued to shed market share in the first three months of 2012, latest figures showed yesterday, while number two supermarket Asda has seen its slice of the pie jump to a record high. According to Kantar data released yesterday, Tesco’s year-on-year growth lagged behind the rest of the sector at just 2.7 per [...]
QUAFFER’S CORNER March 19, 2012 HEAD SOMMELIER AND MANAGER OF LUTYENS RESTAURANT It is budget time and so, rather than allow my anger at yet another rise in alcohol duty get the better of me, let us take a quick look at how wine duty works. When wine arrives from overseas it comes to rest in a bonded warehouse. At [...]
Tesco’s slice of market shrinks January 31, 2012 SUPERMARKET giant Tesco has seen its market share fall under 30 per cent for the first time in almost seven years as it struggled to recover from its dire Christmas trading performance, according to new data from Kantar Worldpanel. Tesco’s market share – based on a measure of how much money has gone through its [...]
Tesco’s marketing strategy needs a new broom in 2012 to sweep away its Clubcard January 12, 2012 THESE were bad figures, Tesco can’t get away from that. Britain’s biggest retailer reported its worst Christmas sales performance for decades on Thursday and warned it would see minimal profit growth next year. Down 1.3 per cent like-for-like (including VAT) in the UK was much worse than any other figures we’ve had from the major [...]
Tesco loses market share in run-up to Xmas January 10, 2012 Britain’s biggest retailer, lost grocery market share in the run-up to Christmas as rivals fought back against its price-cutting campaign and cash-strapped shoppers flocked to discount stores, according to new data. Market researcher Kantar Worldpanel said grocery sales rose 4.8 per cent in the 12 weeks to 25 December. That lagged a 5.9 per cent [...]
Value is key for the grocers December 20, 2011 LAST week I looked at how the major UK banks performed on YouGov’s BrandIndex in 2011, and this week I’m turning my attention to how the supermarkets fared over the same year. An interesting starting point is to take the Index Score (which is a composite of six key attribute measures). We see that all [...]
Waitrose tops supermarket poll December 15, 2011 Waitrose has topped the Which? annual customer satisfaction survey for the third year running, winning a score of 83 per cent as its big four rivals failed to impress. Budget retailers Aldi and Lidl came second and third respectively, beating Mark & Spencer – which came fourth – for the first time. Tesco and The [...]
Prices tumble at UK’s stores November 8, 2011 PRICE wars between supermarkets are driving down the cost of food and other items, as stores fight for the attention of increasingly squeezed shoppers. Food was half a per cent cheaper last month than in September, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) revealed this morning. Tesco has been pushing its “Big Price Drop”, while Asda’s “Price [...]
Amazon tops customer satisfaction table October 28, 2011 Amazon has retained its crown as Britain’s favourite retailer in an annual consumer poll. Satisfaction with the company’s service even increased over the past year, according to the Nunwood Customer Experience 100 survey. Amazon beat off the challenge of second place John Lewis and third place Virgin Atlantic, which was marginally ahead of competitor Emirates. [...]