UK's Sainsbury's outperforms rivals - Kantar Worldpanel

LONDON, Sept 22 (Reuters) - British supermarket Sainsbury (Amsterdam: SJ6.AS - news) 's

outperformed its so called "big four" rivals over the

last three months, industry data showed on Tuesday, as a grocery

price war continued to stall overall market growth.

Sainsbury's, in common with its major peers -- market leader

Tesco (Xetra: 852647 - news) , Wal-Mart's Asda and Morrisons --

is battling to reverse the flow of shoppers to German

discounters Aldi and Lidl through price

cuts, as well as product quality and service improvements.

Market researcher Kantar Worldpanel said Sainsbury's sales

grew 0.9 percent in the 12 weeks to Sept. 13, while sales at

Tesco, Asda and Morrisons fell 1.0 percent, 2.9 percent and 1.4

percent respectively.

Sainsbury's maintained its market share at 16.2 percent

while it edged down at the other three.

The data represents a boost to Sainsbury's ahead of a second

quarter trading statement scheduled for Sept. 30. Its shares

were up 1 percent by 0914 GMT, while shares in Tesco and

Morrisons were both down 1 percent.

Kantar said Sainsbury's attracted 250,000 new shoppers over

the 12 week period, helped by the expansion of its convenience

store outlets.

Aldi and Lidl continued their strong performances at the

expense of the traditional players with sales rises of 17.3

percent and 16.0 percent respectively. Kantar said some 56

percent of British households shopped at one of the two grocers

in the period.

Lidl's market share hit a record high of 4.2 percent, while

Aldi's increased to 5.6 percent.

Overall market growth for the 12 weeks was 0.9 percent, the

sixth straight month that sales have grown by less than 1

percent.

Kantar said deflation was 1.7 percent over the period.

Falling prices reflect the impact of Aldi and Lidl and the

market's competitive response, as well as deflation in some

major categories including eggs, bread, butter and crisps.

Market share and sales growth (percent)

12 wks to 12 wks to pct change

Sept. 13, Sept. 14, in sales

2015 2014

Tesco 28.2 28.8 -1.0

Asda 16.7 17.3 -2.9

Sainsbury 16.2 16.2 0.9

Morrison 10.7 10.9 -1.4

Co-operative 6.4 6.4 1.0

Waitrose 5.2 5.1 2.9

Aldi 5.6 4.8 17.3

Lidl 4.2 3.6 16.0

Iceland 2.0 1.9 3.4

(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Neil Maidment)