Tesco, Asda sales fall as march of the discounters continues-Kantar

LONDON, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Britain's "big four" supermarkets have all lost market share in a barely growing grocery market, as the likes of Tesco (Xetra: 852647 - news) and Asda are left standing by the growth of discounters Aldi and Lidl, Kantar Worldpanel said on Tuesday.

Like-for-like sales at market leader Tesco fell 0.9 percent in the 12 weeks to Aug. 16, the market research company said, while Wal-Mart's Asda saw a 2.5 percent decline and Morrisons was down 1.1 percent.

Sainsbury (Amsterdam: SJ6.AS - news) 's, which vies with Asda for the second position, eked out a 0.1 percent rise, Kantar Worldpanel, 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 both saw sales growth accelerate to 18 percent and 12.8 percent respectively, giving them a combined share of 9.7 percent.

Overall grocery sales grew 0.9 percent, Kantar Worldpanel said. (Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Neil Maidment)