Tesco boss Ken Murphy has warned its rivals it is ready to breach its target of a 30% market share this year, after the supermarket recorded its biggest market dominance in a decade.
The Grocer revealed in May last year that Tesco had set a target of hitting the landmark figure of the first time in 12 years. Today’s Q3 and Christmas figures show it is now on the cusp of achieving its aim.
With its market share up 31bps to 29.4%, it has now had 32 consecutive four-week periods of year-on-year gains, but Murphy said he was confident that the coming months would herald more market dominance.
This week, as first revealed by The Grocer, Tesco turned the heat up on its rivals with a major investment in its value range, including a heavyweight campaign bringing back the blue and white stripes from the Everyday Value range it dropped in 2012.
“We believe that there are still share gains to be had and that will be an outcome of doing the right thing for customers,” Murphy told today’s results call.
He also vowed that Tesco was this year “marching to its own tune”, having spent key parts of last year responding to Asda’s bid to spark a comeback with its major investments in price cuts.
However, today Murphy said Asda was the biggest source of its market share gains. It also took shoppers from five or six other supermarket rivals.
“Without a doubt we responded very decisively when Asda announced its price cuts last year and now we’re just running our own model and our own trade plan,” said Murphy.
“We’re marching to our own tune.”
The latest Kantar figures come seven months after Tesco chief commercial officer Ashwin Prasad told the supermarket’s IGD supplier event at Alexandra Palace that it was targeting a return to the 30% mark share figure it last held in 2012.
Murphy told The Grocer suppliers had responded to Tesco’s call for it to support its resurgence saying they had been “at the heart of everything we do”.
“Anything we do in terms of our trade plans, including the extension of everyday value that we announced this week, we do in partnership with suppliers and they have recognised the need to give customers reliable value, particularly in those challenging months of January and February. They have supported us and I’m very grateful for their support and we will continue to work with them.”
Murphy said the economic outlook continued to be challenging for customers, predicting cost of living struggles would continue for many households in 2026.
“What we are saying is there are households out there in good shape and others that are counting every penny.
“We are a broad church and need to make sure we cover both, which is why we started the year with the launch of our new Everyday Value products.”
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