Lidl has overtaken Morrisons to become the UK’s fifth-biggest supermarket in terms of food and drink sales.
Lidl’s food and drink market share – including sales of fresh, chilled and ambient groceries but not alcohol, household, toiletries or healthcare – was 7.7% in the 52 weeks to 13 July 2025, compared with Morrisons’ 7.6%, according to unpublished Worldpanel data seen by The Grocer.
Lidl’s food and drink share had shot up from 7.3% in the previous 52 weeks, thanks to its sales growing by 10.1%. At the same time, Morrisons’ food and drink share had dropped from 7.8%, with its sales only climbing by 1.5%.
The food and drink figures are distributed privately to retailers, and are different to those included in Worldpanel’s monthly published market update, which relate to all expenditure through store tills excluding petrol and in-store concessions.
Those have Morrisons narrowly retaining its lead, with a grocery market share of 8.4% in the 12 weeks to 13 July, compared with Lidl’s 8.3% – a new record for the discounter. Lidl’s market share had risen from 7.8% a year earlier, thanks to its sales growing by 11.1%. Morrisons’ share had slipped from 8.7%, with its sales up only 1%.
Lidl is expected to also overtake Morrisons in those numbers in the new year.
Read more: Aldi overtakes Asda in grocery market share over four weeks
In food and drink, Lidl has grown to become the country’s fifth-biggest supermarket behind Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Aldi and Asda, in descending order.
A Morrisons spokesperson said: “The numbers are partly a function of new supermarket openings, where we haven’t added new space for some time, and the survey doesn’t capture all of the growth we are seeing in convenience and wholesale, and our Myton manufacturing business.”
A spokesperson for Worldpanel said: “We do not publish retailer market share data for select categories. Our grocery market share release provides a full view of grocers’ performance, including all expenditure through store tills except petrol and in-store concessions.”
This year is the 31st since Lidl opened its first UK store in 1994. It plans to mark the occasion by opening its 1,000th in November.
Lidl – which won Grocer of the Year at The Grocer Gold Awards in July – is set to open 40 new stores throughout 2025, and is aiming to continue the momentum into 2026.
Like Aldi, which currently has about 1,050 UK stores, Lidl aims to the grow its estate to 1,500 over time.
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