Symbols and independents saw their grocery market share grow to 1.4% in the three months ending 23 March, according to insights firm Kantar.
The slight growth is relative to the prior three months, in which symbols and independents claimed 1.3% of the market. Year-on-year, however, the sector saw a small decline compared to a 1.5% share in the same period of 2024.
The sequential growth of 0.1% in symbol and independents’ market share is smaller than the growth seen across the same span a year ago – between the fourth quarter of 2023 and first quarter of 2024 – which stood at 0.2%.
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However, in the current period measured by Kantar, the growth in share seen by large supermarket chains Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda marked an improvement on the first quarter span of last year, in which all three companies saw declines.
Symbol and independents’ share growth approximately mirror the growth seen for major supermarkets, which all saw below one percentage point growth year-on-year, with the exceptions of Aldi and Morrisons’, whose shares both fell.
At the same time, Kantar found that retailers’ price cuts were responsible for £2.6bn of promotional spending, 8.8% more than the same time last year. Promotional sales ramped up in March to 28.2% of total grocery spending, the highest level seen in March for four years, the company said.
Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said of the wider grocery channel: “Take-home sales at the grocers increased by 1.8% over the four weeks to 23 March 2025 compared with one year ago – the slowest rate since June last year, according to our latest data. Grocery price inflation rose slightly to 3.5% over the same period.”
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