It was evident in the vital recent season. Top of the pile of the big food retailers was Tesco with 5 per cent growth, and Sainsbury’s on 3.5 per cent. In the no-growth, flat to negative, category were Iceland, 0.9 per cent higher – although that may have seen it benefit from a technical glitch that hit Morrison’s, down 1.9 per cent. The weakest link across a market that performed strongly, despite economic headwinds, was Asda. The chain, owned by TDR private equity and the brothers, Mohsin and Zuber Issa since 2021, suffered its worst festive trading for seven years, as sales crashed by 5.8 per cent, further eroding the third-largest player’s market share. There were other victors, notably M&S, Lidl and Ocado.
