It’s all change in the grocery market just southeast of Sheffield, as Sainsbury aims to revitalise its brand in the region. The area is a long way from Sainsbury’s traditional heartland of the south, but the grocer has decided it’s time to shake up this part of Yorkshire to win some market share.
Sainsbury is developing a 55,000 sq ft store in Mosborough at a cost of £55m. However, the new store will be at the cost of closing two other stores. The first is the smaller Sainsbury store already located in the Crystal Peaks Centre in Mosborough. This store will be closed and the new store opened on a site a few hundred yards away. The less obvious closure is the 15-year-old, 37,000 sq ft store in Meadowhall. Sainsbury takes the view there is a lack of prime customers in this store’s catchment and so will be hoping the planned new superstore seven miles away will still cater for the loss of the store in Meadowhall.
CACI can reveal that this new store’s catchment in Mosborough will be dominated by the Acorn group’s Flourishing, Secure and Struggling Families, which make up two thirds of the catchment. Other Acorn groups with a significant presence include Settled Suburbia and Blue-Collar Roots.
The mixture of these groups, and the dominance of Sainsbury’s key customers, Secure Families, suggest there is plenty of potential for the retailer here. It will also be hoping to make the most of the Flourishing Families that are more attracted to Sainsbury.
The closure of two stores and the opening of a bigger store will shake up local market shares. This will result in some grocers gaining expenditure from the closures, but losing expenditure from other stores.
CACI predicts that, after the changes have occurred, the retailer with the highest market share in this new Sainsbury catchment will probably be Morrisons. Morrisons stands to lose the largest amount of sales, but because of the large number of Safeway/Morrisons stores in the region, it should still retain a healthy 30% market share.
The new Sainsbury store should create a 27% market share and would take the number two spot in the local grocery market. Sainsbury will retain a large proportion of customers from the Crystal Peaks store and pick up additional sales with the larger format. It may also consider adding a non-food section into the new store.
Tesco will likely fall into third place with a market share of 25%. Asda should take a market share of 14%, leaving this area dominated by the big four grocers.