Sainsbury's best of UK 'big four' at Christmas - Kantar

LONDON, Jan 13 (Reuters) - J Sainsbury was the

Christmas winner among Britain's so called "big four" grocers,

industry data showed on Tuesday, although smaller German

discounters Aldi and Lidl continued to grab market share.

Market researcher Kantar Worldpanel said all of the big four

-- Tesco (Xetra: 852647 - news) , Asda, Sainsbury's and Wm Morrison

-- posted sales declines in the period amid a fierce

industry price war, but that Sainsbury's fared best.

Sainsbury's sales fell 0.7 percent over the 12 weeks to Jan

4, Kantar said, compared with falls of 1.2 percent at market

leader Tesco and 1.6 percent at Asda and Morrisons.

All of the big four also saw their market share slip in the

period, with Tesco's trimmed from 29.6 percent to 29.1 percent.

Sainbury's, Tesco and Morrisons have all recently published

Christmas trading statements, all coming in ahead of analyst

forecasts.

Aldi and Lidl, whose cheap, limited ranges have proved

increasingly popular with Britain's shoppers, saw their

year-on-year market shares rise from 4 percent to 4.8 percent

and 3.1 percent to 3.5 percent respectively, Kantar said.

More than half of all British households visited at least

one of the two firms over the 12 week period.

Sales at Aldi grew 22.6 percent in the period, with Lidl

posting a rise of 15.1 percent. The rate of growth at both

slowed, however, from 22.3 percent at Aldi and 18.3 percent at

Lidl in the 12 weeks to Dec. 7.

Heavy price reductions encouraged shoppers to spend a little

more over the Christmas period, Kantar said, with the overall

grocery market up 0.6 percent in the 12 week period -- its

strongest performance since August.

Summary of market share and sale change (percent)

12 wks to 12 wks to pct change

Jan 4, 2015 Jan 5, 2014 in sales

Tesco 29.1 29.6 -1.2

Asda 16.8 17.1 -1.6

Sainsbury 16.9 17.1 -0.7

Morrison 11.3 11.5 -1.6

Co-operative 5.9 6.1 -2.4

Waitrose 5.1 4.8 6.6

Aldi 4.8 4.0 22.6

Lidl 3.5 3.1 15.1

Iceland 2.2 2.2 -0.4

(Reporting by Neil Maidment; Editing by Mark Potter)