In France discounters Lidl and Aldi showed the strongest gains in August

According to Kantar, discounters Aldi and Lidl achieved the best performance in FMCG and fresh food between August 8th and September 4th 2022. In detail, this gain is explained for Lidl (now at 7.8% market share) by “more customers with larger baskets” and Lidl’s popularity continuing to rise, according to Kantar. At Aldi, it is the recruitment of 444,000 new customers that has enabled it to increase its market share to 2.7%.

The number one French retailer Leclerc gained 0.2 points in share over the period and welcomed 725,000 new customers to their stores.

Carrefour hypermarkets, together with its local stores, are driving the group’s growth. This was enough to widen the gap with the next largest groups (Les Mousquetaires group fell by 0.4 points – a decline entirely attributable to its flagship brand Intermarché) and Système U, a rare occurrence to be noted, fell by 0.1 points).

More generally during the period, hypermarkets performed rather well, as is the case with Auchan’s hypermarkets, which have seen an increase of +0.2% in market share. This development corroborates the comments made at the end of August by the directors of Auchan Retail. They noted a significant improvement in their activities in France, due in particular to strong investments in prices.

This positive dynamic is part of a period in which the French have increased their spending. Kantar reports that the French have increased their spending on FMCG and Fresh foods by +4.9% in August when compared to the same period in 2021. This trend is linked to “an increase in the frequency of purchases which compensates for the drop in basket size in an inflationary context”.