Tesco, Asda sales fall as discounters advance-Kantar

(Adds details, table)

LONDON, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Britain's "big four" supermarkets

have all lost market share in a barely growing grocery market,

with Tesco (Xetra: 852647 - news) and its main rivals failing to keep pace

with discounters Aldi and Lidl, Kantar Worldpanel said on

Tuesday.

German-owned Aldi and Lidl now have a combined market share

of 9.7 percent, versus 8.4 percent a year ago, according to the

market research company.

Like-for-like sales at market leader Tesco fell 0.9 percent

in the 12 weeks to Aug. 16, Kantar said, as strong growth in its

convenience shops and online could not offset lower revenue at

larger stores.

Asda, which this month said it had suffered its worst

quarterly sales performance since it was bought by U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . group

Wal-Mart 16 years ago, saw a 2.5 percent decline and

Morrisons was down 1.1 percent.

Tesco's market share fell from 28.8 percent to 28.3 percent

year on year, with Asda's share falling from 17.2 percent to

16.6 percent and Morrison's down slightly.

Sainsbury (Amsterdam: SJ6.AS - news) 's, which vies with Asda for the second

position, eked out a 0.1 percent sales rise, Kantar said, but it

was not enough to stop its share of the market falling 0.1

percentage points to 16.3 percent.

Discounters Aldi and Lidl, whose cheap

own-brand goods have forced Britain's big four to slash prices

in an attempt to hold on to shoppers, both saw sales growth

accelerate to 18 percent and 12.8 percent respectively.

Overall grocery sales grew 0.9 percent, Kantar said,

continuing a year-long trend of 1 percent or less growth as

record commodity-led deflation also pushes prices down.

Market share and sales growth (percent)

12 wks to 12 wks to pct change

Aug 16, 2015 Aug 17, 2014 in sales

Tesco 28.3 28.8 -0.9

Asda 16.6 17.2 -2.5

Sainsbury 16.3 16.4 0.1

Morrisons 10.8 11.0 -1.1

Co-op 6.4 6.4 1.1

Waitrose 5.1 4.9 3.7

Aldi 5.6 4.8 18.0

Lidl 4.1 3.6 12.8

Iceland 2.0 2.0 3.4

(Reporting by Paul Sandle and Neil Maidment; Editing by Keith

Weir)