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Analysis of the UK's £32 billion and fast growing convenience market by Ed Garner of KantarWorldpanel shows that fresh and chilled is where Tesco Express is putting its emphasis. Speaking just after him at Sweet Charity's Independent Retailer Conference, Chris Etherington, chief executive of wholesaler Palmer and Harvey, said that fresh was nowhere near as high as it should be on the agenda of the independent trade. A reason for this is that the wholesale industry is not as good at delivering this as it should be. The major multiples are very good at it. We need to get better, Mr Etherington said. In a speech that was otherwise optimistic about the growth prospects for local shops, this was an important caveat. Mr Etherington, who heads the UK's largest wholesaler by sales, says that the market will grow. "It is a great, great opportunity and it's the shoppers that are doing it," he said. But how soon can the wholesalers get it right? This week's n...

Ed Garner of Kantar Worldpanel reckons he has the best tool for knowing what is happening in the UK grocery market and his data says Tesco's strategy does not work. Nine out of 10 people already visit Tesco regularly and no matter how hard it tries, this number is unlikely to become 10 out of 10. Sitting in a room with 9 businessmen and one environmental campaigner yesterday I mentioned this 9 out of 10 statistic and they simply did not believe me. How many people shop at Tesco, the chairman asked and only two of us put up our hands. The other shopper said he mainly used Tesco late at night when he had to make a distress purchase. Which got me thinking about my visit the previous evening to buy toothpaste. I had caught a train out of Paddington and planned to buy the toothpaste at Sainsbury's busy c-store in the station. Thinking ahead about this purchase and after hearing at the Independent Retailer Conference about how multiples organised their shops around shopper missio...

It was the stream of shoppers visiting Steve Archer’s new convenience store in Newcastle-under-Lyme last week that really underlined his point that sometimes local shopkeepers cannot see the opportunity under their noses. He had persuaded the landlord of two small closed shops to let him lease them, knock them together and provide a full convenience offering including off licence. Nearby retailers led a petition of their customers to oppose the off licence and lost. “Local people really like the idea of being able to walk to their shop, rather than travel to the supermarket,” Steve told me. I could see this was true with my eyes. Mr Archer’s message is pretty much the same as the one Justin King, the boss of Sainsbury, told the national media at a City dinner around the same time. Shoppers are going “back to the future”, Mr King said, making more frequent trips and putting fewer items in their baskets. There is a big opportunity, Ed Garner, communications director of Kantar Worldpanel,...

While there is lots of turmoil in the grocery market, local shopkeepers can be optimistic that the billions spent by the big four on new shops is not taking sales from them. On the other hand, trading remains tough and will continue so for some time. Data collected by industry observers like Kantar Worldpanel and AC Nielsen is released monthly and provides a useful benchmark for local store owners. But you have to keep watching the numbers as they are not as dramatic as you may think. The big message from the Kantar team is that grocery inflation is running at 5.2 per cent but sales are only up by 3.8 per cent. While the big winners in its August analysis are the discounters - Aldi and Lidl - it estimates the sales rise at symbols and independents is 13.4 per cent across the 12 weeks to 7 August. However, if you average the market share positions for 13 Kantar reports to smooth out seasonal fluctuations, you find that Asda has lost 0.3 per cent market share and Sainsbury...

There are many sources of grocery market data compiled in different ways. Kantar Worldpanel uses till roll receipts from 25,000 households, chosen to reflect the demographic make up of the UK. It also measures the prices of 75,000 products to form a view of grocery inflation. It publishes numbers every month and the latest figures for the 12 week to 10 July show that the market is picking up - which contrasts with many market views. However, it also says that grocery inflation has risen, from 4.6 per cent to 4.8 per cent. It now says it is likely this will reach 5 per cent this year. A month ago, it was not of this opinion. The reason for this change of view is that a small number of categories are seeing very high price rises. "This is putting extra pressure on shoppers' budgets," it says. "We expect the market to slow in the coming months." Kantar Worldpanel points out that Aldi and Lidl are growing and Waitrose is growing. The growth, it says, is coming...

Writing in the Sun, Kelvin MacKenzie, recounts how he took part in a television discussion about the links between obesity and poverty, when a fellow panelist said to him: "It's all right for you, shopping at Waitrose". Mr MacKenzie then defends his choice of supermarket by saying it is the nearest to where he lives and as "any food retailer will tell you - thanks to their extensive research - no customer wants to travel more than one and a quarter miles to shop. It's why supermarkets build more and more stores". If he is correct, then Waitrose must locate its shops where there are fewer obese people - and as it adds more stores then it will have more "problem" shoppers, where I use the term "problem" loosely. Research by Kantar Worldpanel shared with me by Ed Garner before Christmas plots the major supermarkets and independent shops on to a graph where the two axis are the percentage of upmarket ABC1 shoppers and the relative numbe...

"Asda is very one-dimensional. They have only got price in their golf bag. They are a one club golfer", says Greg Lawless, a City consultant talking to the FT about Andy Bond's decision to stand down as chief executive of Asda. This is a ridiculous oversimplification. It also helps to expain how difficult it is to keep investors on side - and by extension customers. Perhaps Mr Bond is leaving because he is bored at having only one club to use. But his successors are unlikely to put the club away. For local retailers, who have seen their margins squeezed and their shoppers lured away by Asda, there is likely to be no relief in the battle to win and retain customers. Big packaged goods companies will still rely on Asda for one in five sales or more. Shoppers in the UK are keener than ever on promotions, accounting for one in three sales according to Kantar Worldpanel. What local retailers may learn from Mr Lawless's comments is the importance of a clear strategy. Asda h...