A further fall in sales at J Sainsbury has thrown a still sharper focus on the supermarket’s planned £12bn merger with Asda.
Sales at Britain’s second biggest grocer slid by 1% in the 12 weeks to February 24, with its market share falling by 0.5% to 15.7%, according to the latest data from Kantar Worldpanel, the market researcher.
The figure compares with sales increases of 10% and 5.4%, respectively, at Aldi and Lidl, the German-owned discounters, and marks an acceleration from the 0.3% fall in sales that Sainsbury’s suffered in the 12 weeks to January 27.
