Aldi and Lidl continued to make gains in the past three months, new figures from Kantar Worldpanel reveal.

The discounter duo each claimed a record 2.9% share of the UK grocery market in the 12 weeks to 8 July – having grown sales by 26% and 11.5% respectively, compared to the equivalent period last year.

The market as a whole grew by 2.1% over the period, just half of the 4.2% growth seen this time last year. Inflation is now at 3.8%, according to Kantar.

“We are seeing big cutbacks by consumers as they continue to respond to this current period of austerity,” said Kantar’s Edward Garner.

“The success of the discounters is a clear example of shoppers watching their purses. Once again, Aldi and Lidl achieved all-time record shares and remarkable growth.”

Waitrose outperformed the market again, although its growth over the period slowed from 7.5% to 4.8%. Its share grew by 0.1 percentage points, as did that of Sainsbury’s. Tesco and Morrisons both saw their market share dip slightly.

“Another sign of austerity making an impact is the decline of the premium own label sector,” said Garner. “Premium own-label products have been in continuous growth since 2008, despite often being more expensive than their brand equivalent. But now they are declining by 6% year-on-year, while economy own labels such as Tesco’s Everyday Value are growing at 13%.”

frozen food was the top-growing food sector, helping Iceland to grow share to 2% of the total market.

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